X Men: Game of Empires AU
by RLS83843
Summary: Valerie Jones started this story many years ago. She has been out of sight for three years. I hope all is will. In the meantime, this story needs a conclusion. I am writing what I think should happen next. Explanation of how the story can happen comes in the third chapter. My story takes place where she leaves off.
1. Chapter 1

Valerie Jones has been out of sight for three years. I believe that she will finish Game of Empires eventually, but I want a conclusion, so I can get the story out of my head, so I am writing my idea of where the story should go. When she reappears, if she wants, I will pull the down, but in the meantime, enjoy my idea of Game of Empires. This picks up right after Chapter 33.

"Oh, my head!" Betsy groaned.

Hank rushed to her bedside. "Nice to have you back amongst the living, Betsy," he said.

"What happened," she asked.

"You were on the receiving end of a very nasty weapon. What is the last thing you remember?" Hank asked as he went over her vital signs.

Betsy rubbed her eyes. "I went into a bar with ...with Gambit and Rogue. I think that Scott and Jean were there, but I am not sure. I can't think of the name of the bar. I know it, but I can't think of it," Her pulse started to rise as she struggled to remember.

"You were at Harry's," Hank said. "Your memories are coming back. You are on the way to recovery. Don't try and use your telepathy."

"I don't feel like I am on the way to recovery," Betsy said sullenly. She tried to look around, fighting the increased pain the movement caused. "Where's Warren?"

"He is looking for the people who hurt you. He is not very happy," Hank lied.

Betsy laid her head back on the pillow. "I wouldn't want to be them right now," she said as she fell asleep.

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After hearing the good news that Betsy had woke up, Gambit headed for the front door. As his hand touched the door handle, he could almost swear that his time portal was opening outside! He yanked the door open to the buzz saw sound.

What he saw stopped him cold. Cody's portal was in the front yard! People started running out of the doorway and Gambit stood there transfixed. The second person out was a girl named Sylvia. She was one of the kids who had been in the Danger Room, when the Gamemaster had appeared. When Remi had been in that nightmare timeline, he had some regrets about not bringing all of the kids who were in the Danger Room into the discussion. Maybe they could have been saved if he had just not thought about talking with his close friends. Of course maybe the time wave could have caught them before he could have gone through, It had been close. Here she was, carrying a little girl over her shoulder like a gunny sack!

The fifth person out was Rachel! She looked just the same as she had all those years ago! She was also carrying a little girl. Others came through. Some adult, some teenager, but mostly young children. Most of the young children were staggering out of the portal as if they were shoved through, falling on each other as the next person came through.. stumbling through the pile of humanity The last to come through was a teen aged Renee, an adult Chamber, Cody and a teen aged version of himself! His counterpart collapsed as the portals closed.

Young Renee took one look at Gambit and shrieked, "Daddy!" She jumped to her feet ran around the crowd and across the lawn and threw herself into Gambit's arms and began to cry.

The intruder alarm began to sound when the time portal opened. X-Men and Generation X appeared at the front of the mansion expecting a battle. Seventy-one people had come to the mansion. Older Renee took one look at Cody and screamed. When young Renee saw Older Renee, she pulled away from Gambit, looking at him in total confusion.

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Remi wished that someone would shut that alarm off. He had never felt this badly before. He suddenly felt a warmth flow through him. Renee must have helped him. He opened his eyes to stare at a noticeably older Renee. This wasn't a girl, but an adult face staring down at him. No, not at him,but at Cody who was kneeling beside him.

"Thanks," Remi said as he rose to his feet.

Renee ignored him, not that such surprised him. What did surprise him was when he looked around and froze, in shock. It couldn't be! Gambit? How? He saw the Renee that he knew she was looking between himself and …Gambit.

Scott looked at the new arrivals and said, simply. "We need to talk."

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They brought in some chairs and everyone sat in the rec room. The young children, almost all of them appeared to be first graders, sat on the floor. Gambit couldn't stop staring at his long dead friends who were busy staring back at him and Older Renee. He was missing something. How could they be here?

About half of the children were whispering to each other. The other half looked scared. Their eyes looking around furtively as if they expected an attack. Most of the teenagers sat together at one end of the group. The adults sat in chairs behind the young children. Some of the adults had children in their laps. What surprised Gambit was that his friends were not sitting together,

After an awkward silence, Scott said, "It is probably best to start with a simple introduction. Chamber, who are all these kids and how did you come to be here?"

Chamber, the adult version, was sitting at the end of the row. He composed his thoughts. Gambit took a moment and looked at the other adults. If he wasn't mistaken, one of them was Jean's nephew, Joe Bailey. Of course it would make perfect sense for Scott to not recognize him. He had never seen Joe as an adult.

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Something was wrong with Aban. Remi could not sense his presence telepathically, at all. He glanced over as Chamber rose to his feet to answer Scott. Remi was glad that Chamber was there to speak for the group. He knew that he could do it if he had to, but that didn't mean that he wanted to

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"We are actually from the future. A little over half an hour ago, our time, we were at our school in Kyrgyzstan. Magneto and I were about to run a large scale training session in the Danger Room. We had arranged for our first grade students to watch the exercise, so we had the kids with parents and teachers, and various chaperons in the Danger Room. Charlie here," he indicated a boy, who looked to be thirteen. "He decides to bring a girl in to meet Remi. Her ability was to see people's past and to be able to generate what she saw into the air. She took one look at all of us and shouted that our history was being erased and showed us what looked to be some kind of dark, almost malevolent wave. Magneto said the paradox was collapsing. He told Remi to open his time portal and push as far back as he could. He told Cody to open a portal within Remi's portal. We had discussed the possibility of group time travel as a defense if this should ever happen, but we didn't know if it would work. When the portals were open, Magneto grabbed as many people as he could and shoved us in. I was one of the last to go. As I went in, I could see Gladiator rushing to give Remi and Cody a push. Not everyone made it, including the girl who warned us," Chamber stopped for a moment

The explanation rocked Gambit. They were duplicates from another temporary timeline who had managed to escape the paradox without the Gamemaster's help! He looked at himself. Confident, but not arrogant. Gambit thought about how much he had wished that there had been someone like Chamber to be the center of attention when he had come through time.

Chamber continued. "We arrived at some undetermined point in our past. It was night. Cody and Norma went upstairs to scout around. The city was without power. We came under heavy telepathic assault. Those of us who were telepathic, generated a shield around everyone else. Since I felt our position was untenable, I told Remi and Cody to open portals again. This is where we came out. What is the date?

"May 2, 1998."

"Do you understand what I meant about the paradox?"

"Yes," Scott answered, glancing at Gambit and the professor.

"When can we go home?" one of the little girls asked.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the X-Men glanced at each other. "About that," Iceman said. "Gambit, maybe you should tell them how you got here and what you learned along the way."

Gambit glanced at Young Renee. He knew what he was going to say would break her heart. Talk about deja vu. He took a deep breath and began to tell them his story. As the story came out, Renee went from incredulous to hurt. What he didn't expect was the rage.

"Great, just great! Now our whole timeline doesn't exist because of you! I'll never see my daddy or my momma because of you! I hate you Rem'aillon Neramani!" She rose and fled the building.

"What was that about? I was hurt when it happened to me, but I never felt like I hated Remi," Older Renee said.

"She has been like that for years," Cody said.

"Is that true? We'll never get to go home again?" one of the little girls asked quivering.

Jean joined the conversation, In her softest voice, she said,"No, sweetheart" At that all of the little children started crying,

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Collapsing temporary timelines! Remi felt his heartbeat race. He should be dead, no, absorbed, no erased. No what.. His mind was terrified at the possibles. Everything and everyone he knew was erased in favor of the real timeline. He had to fight the temptation to just black out.

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_I should finish the story,_ Gambit said telepathically. He focused on the adults and the teenagers. The little kids were no longer paying attention and he didn't want to try and shout over their wails It took an hour. He transmitted to the adults and the teenagers, his memories of San Francisco and the Dresden. He could tell that it rattled Cody and Rachel that their counterparts had died. By the, they children had stopped crying for the most part, their eyes to the ground. No one as whispering. They were each in their own thoughts.

Adult Chamber shared his memory of their first stop. There was no doubt in Gambit's mind that these people had spent a few minutes, in the same timeline he had been in. They had been on the other side of the world. If their Cody had opened his doorway to the mansion, he would have meet this group when he was fifteen. The idea stunned him. What if Cody had done that? Would his Cody be alive?

Jean called for a lunch break. She said that the new arrivals needed some time to take it all in. Everyone went into the kitchen. Materials for sub sandwiches were pulled out of the fridge. As soon as everyone had food, Jean took her plate outside the back door. On the porch was a plastic set of lawn table and chairs that the people who had cleaned out the mansion chose to leave behind. If it weren't for Shi'ar replicator technology, the mansion would still be without furniture. Jean found Scott and a young couple with two small children sitting with Rachel. On the lawn, some of the young children were sitting together with a teacher. They all looked scared and sat huddled. Naturally, they were barely touching their food.

As Jean joined sat next to Scott, she heard Rachel say, "It's hard to believe that you are only eleven years older than me."

"They are probably about my age," the young man said, a little boy about six years old huddled on his lap.

Jean couldn't place the man. He was familiar. Sensing Jean's reaction, the young man smiled and said, "Joe Bailey, Sarah's son."

"Little Joey?" Jean said, shocked She would have never guessed.

"All grown up, Aunt Jean," the man said. "This is my wife, Carrie. My boys Matt, who is six and Lenny who is four. If Carrie hadn't been chaperoning the class..." He turned to Rachel. "How are you doing, Rach?"

Rachel chocked. "I am never going to see them again, will I? My parents. My brother Brian. They are really gone!"

Scott and Jean each took a hand. "Yes. They are gone." They sat with Rachel as she cried, which set off Matt and Lenny to tears. The little boys may have been too young to understand what the problem was, but they knew something was wrong.

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Two Renees. Rogue didn't know what to think. She never thought that she would ever have a child. Now she had two children who were basically the same person and a son. She could see herself in the boy. Cody. He and that other boy, Charlie came up to her and Older Renee, each with a plate full of food. Rogue and Older Renee had sat at a card table in the rec room.

"Cody," Older Renee breathed. Her heart beat furiously. He was Cody. At one time, he had been her Cody. She couldn't stop staring.

"Hi Renee. Hi Momma," Cody said as he and Charlie put down their food and drinks on a nearby end table.

Charlie was nervous as a cat in a rocking chair convention, Rogue thought as he said, "Do you know what Age of Apocalypse was?" the younger boy said.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Rogue replied,

Charlie looked to Cody who replied. "In that timeline, Magneto and you married. Charlie is your son. Before the timeline was repaired, Magneto somehow sent Charlie into our timeline, complete with a note as to who he was. He showed up six months after Daddy died."

"Is that why Renee is so bitter? Because Momma accepted Charlie?" Older Renee asked.

Charlie looked morose. Rogue stood up and took his chin in her gloved hand. "No one is sending you away Sugah," she said.

"My real momma and poppa died. Now my second momma and poppa died, got absorbed, whatever. Here, Poppa is almost dead. What's gonna happen to you? It might be safer if you did send me away. People that love me have bad things happen to them." Charlie said. He started to turn away when Rogue grabbed him and pulled Charlie into a bear hug. He tried to pull away, but to no avail.

"Don' chu eveh say that! Don' chu evah think that! None of this is your fault! That kinda guilt will tear you up and you are innocent. You hear?" Rogue said. At that moment, she knew this young boy was hers. She looked at her children ad mentally did something she didn't normally do. She silently thanked God. After Charlie calmed down, Rogue let him go. He wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Cody, why is Renee so bitter?" Older Renee asked again.

Cody glanced at Charlie. "Charlie has been a lot more influential that he realizes. After Momma and Grandpa took him in, the government passed the mutant registration act. It got ugly and violent real quick. Magneto came to try and recruit people at the school for the war that was brewing.

When Charlie came, he was just three. Magneto met Charlie. Grandpa showed him the letter that his counterpart had sent. He never did get along with Pietro. He saw Charlie as a second chance to have a family and he came with us when we moved to Kyrgyzstan. Eventually he and Momma married. They even had a couple of kids between them, Lana and Esther. They were eight and four. Renee rejected them all. Magneto, Charlie, Lana, Esther, pretty much everything. She thinks I'm betraying Daddy's memory by being nice to everyone. She'll talk to me, but it can be hard sometimes."

"So Rachel.." Renee began only to be interrupted by Cody

"Rachel and Renee fell out about three years ago. " he said. "Renee had a pretty good relationship with Storm and that's about it."

"Charlie," Renee said.

"What?" he said, eyes downward.

"Look at me," Renee said.

He looked up.

"I'm not her. I don't resent you and I want to have a good relationship with you. Just like, I know this isn't my Cody, but I still want to have a good relationship with him. Are you willing to have a good relationship with me?" Renee said.

Her sincerity threw Charlie for a loop. "Yeah, sure. I uh, I am willing to be nice. I guess I haven't really thought about you either way."

Renee extended her right hand.

"Oh, you can take off you gloves. Your powers don't hurt me any more. You too, Momma." Charlie said.

"Hurt you anymore? You mean that she deliberately used her powers to hurt you?" Renee asked horrified.

"Sort of," Charlie responded. "Once."

Renee was furious. "When I get my hands on that girl!" She started to rise out of her seat to go after the younger girl, only to have her momentum stopped by Rogue's iron grip. Wait, Sugah. We need to know the whole story, first."

Renee started to argue, but like Charlie, she found Rogue's determination was only matched by her grip. "Fine! Cody, what happened?" Rogue released her grip.

Cody looked uncomfortable. "When Renee's powers kicked in, she was in the middle of an argument with Charlie about something and she shoved him into a wall. Charlie started to scream, but she wouldn't let go. If Rachel hadn't been there to yank her off of him, telekinetically, she'd have killed him. Momma made Renee go through a telepathic probe to find out if it was deliberate or not. Grandpa said that at first it was accidental, but after she got started, she didn't care that she was hurting him. Grandpa and Momma laid down the law on her after that. They'd get Grandma to banish for a couple of years on a prison world until Charlie was old enough to take care of himself if she tried anything like that again. After that, Rachel didn't want anything to do with Renee."

"Wow," Renee said softly. She had loved her Shi'ar grandmother, but the woman had a will of iron. She had no doubt that Grandma would send the other Renee somewhere unpleasant. She couldn't imagine having screwed up her friendship with Rachel like the other girl had done, but she understood Rachel, totally. She made a mental note to talk with Rachel and make sure that the other girl understood that she was a very different person than the teenage Renee..

"Right now, let's just eat our lunch as a family. We will figure out what to do about Renee later." Rogue said. The two boys moved their plates to the card table and found chairs.

_I really have a family, _Rogue thought. Despite the heartache regarding Remy, she felt happier than she had felt in a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Bishop and Emma Frost stood in a corner watching the newcomers. Though they had no reason to doubt the newcomers' story, it wasn't in the nature of either one of them to completely trust strangers. Emma was particularity interested in how young Jono and old Jono would get along. There was a hardness to the older version that Emma approved. The older Chamber could take care of himself and he appeared willing to take care of the children.

"Ms. Frost, Bishop. Can we talk with you?" Three young men and a teenage boy approached, their sandwiches half eaten.

Bishop eyed them suspiciously "What can we do for you," he asked, He asked in a tone of voice that indicated that he clearly didn't trust them.

_I'm Jaysean Miller. This is Armando Fernandes, Lars Davis and Omar Ablatov. Are you aware that someone is watching the mansion from beyond the property line?_ the tallest of the three men asked telepathically. His deep ebony skin was darker than Bishop's with neat corn rows perfectly coiffed. Jaysean was Bishop's height; a lean, muscular young man who could have easily been a star athlete.

Armando Fernandes was a little shorter with softer features. His skin was as dark as his companion's, but he had deep blue eyes, also with a trim athletic build. _We thought that you should know before we started to probe them, assuming they are not friends of yours_, the second young man added telepathically.

Bishop looked to Frost for confirmation.

_Two men in a van, parked along the road. They are hoping to avoid detection, That is as much as I can get without a serious probe. _Emma replied.

_Is there anyone else watching us from another location? _Bishop thought. He knew the telepaths would hear him.

After a moment, Emma said, _Not that I can sense._

_ Me neither. Doesn't mean that there aren't any bugs, though. We'll have to ask Ji'an to look into that, _Jaysean said.

_They probably caught our entrance. We need to erase that record, _Armando said.

_Do they have that weapon that was used on Psylocke?_ Bishop asked.

_What weapon?_ Armando asked.

_A psionic weapon was used to almost kill Psylocke. It shatters telepath's minds.,_ Bishop replied.

At that, Jaysean teleported away to the sound of the boy, Omar saying aloud. "Jaysean, wait for a plan!"

The third man, Lars Davis, a sandy brown haired man had an unfocused look in his eyes and he followed Jaysean, leaving behind a slight popping sound.

The jumps got everyone's attention. To expedite matters, Emma opened up and quickly told everyone, but the young children what was happening. Every telepath in the room who could, checked on Jaysean. He had both of the spies pinned against their van.

Everyone returned to the rec room where Cyclops took command. "Generation X stay here! New people stay here! Keep an eye on the little kids! X-Men let's go before this kid takes those people apart. Emma watch our backs!"

Cody's portal opened. "This will take you outside the front gate!" he said.

Cyclops hesitated. He believed their story, but he was a cautious man. He had never met Cody before. Gambit didn't hesitate. He went through followed by Wolverine. Hearing no warning from Jean, Cyclops said, "Let's go, people!"

Gambit came out of the portal. It took him almost three minutes at a dead run to get to the van. He saw the hurried forms of Storm, Cannonball, Rogue and Joseph fly ahead of him. He arrived to find two men pressed against the van looking visibly scared out of their wits with Jaysean standing right in front of them holding them telekinetically. Lars was a few feet away, with unfocused eyes, his telepathy active, looking for any backup the spies might have. The side panel was open with surveillance equipment in plain sight.

_These two are just private investigators who don't know squat. Whoever hired them didn't want us to learn anything! _Jaysean said, disgustedly. _Maybe Ji'an can get something from their computers._

"I am here. Let me catch my breath," Ji'an said as he caught up to the X-Men. He bent over, putting his hands on his knees gulping air.

"I thought I told you to stay at the mansion?" Cyclops demanded.

"Chamber said I should come," the young man said.

"This is Xi Ji'an. He is very sensitive to the EM spectrum. If they are sending a signal, there is a good chance that he can tell us where the signal is going. Oh, he throws electricity, too," Jaysean said.

"Are they transmitting now," Gambit asked.

"No. Have you scanned them to learn when they last transmitted?"Ji'an asked.

A second later Jaysean replied. "They haven't transmitted since we've been here.."

Gambit and Jean exchanged glances. That Jaysean showed no hesitation to aggressively probe these men raised alarm bells. What wouldn't Jaysean be willing to do?:

Ji'an entered the van and started to adjust equipment. After a minute, Ji'an said, "They did record our entrance. I am erasing it now."

"Only erase that part of the recording. I want to bait a hook. Do you know where they are sending their transmissions?" Cyclops asked.

"I'll have to send something to learn that." Ji'an said.

"How well can they hear inside the mansion?" Jean asked. "Did they record what Charles said about Remi?" Letting the government know about Remi would be a nightmare.

"They have been here less than twenty four hours. They know that Gambit helped Betsy. They transmitted it, too, but that is all that was transmitted." Ji'an replied.

"They were about to transmit a report when we showed up, " Jaysean said.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They had dodged a huge bullet. "Jaysean, what do you think we should do with these two?" Cyclops asked. It was a test. Scott had to know what kind of man Jaysean was. Was he a killer, a man who for lack of opportunity would become as bad as the Shadow King?

"No. I don't want to be the next Shadow King, whoever that is." Jaysean said. "I've never had to kill anyone and I don't need to start now. What I think we should do is wipe these guys memories for today. After we send the signal and Ji'an figures out where it is going, I'll teleport the equipment into space. It'll burn up in the atmosphere and no one will be able to reconstruct the wiped records if the machinery doesn't exist anymore. The van is too heavy for me to teleport, so Iceman should coat the inside with ice. When it melts, any evidence that Ji'an was inside should go down the drain. Satisfied that I am not a monster? We should then go and find out who sent these guys. If they have this telepath killing weapon, we need to shut it down."

Scott nodded. He glanced over to the other X-Men before saying. "Let's do it."

They learned that the signal went to a rural area of Nevada.. When the X-Men returned to the mansion the van had a thin coat of ice on the inside sans equipment and two private investigators who couldn't remember anything of that day.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a somber group that met in the rec room. "We are going to have to go after the people who sent those two. If they made this psionic weapon, we have to shut them down before this thing becomes commonplace." Cyclops said.

"We have to do more than that, Scott." Gambit said. "In the other timeline, several people told me that they waited too long to start recruiting for this war. We are not going to make that mistake. It is time for me to start using what I was taught as a child and think like a military strategist. The Shadow King is starting to build his relays, so we don't have a lot of time. It is time to start to build our army. This means that we are going to have to relocate, permanently. When we went to the mansion in the future, this place was leveled to the ground. We must assume that the Shadow King destroys this place, so the sooner we leave the better."

At that, Jaysean teleported to the roof and began to generate a telekinetic shield that encompassed the property. _I don't like being vulnerable_, he said telepathically.

"Is he always this aggressive?" Rogue asked.

The question was aimed at Cody, but Rachel answered. "He is definitely an alpha personality type. He may be aggressive, but he really isn't too full of himself. He's willing to listen."

Sam Guthrie jerked suddenly, staring at Rachel with the a tremendous look of surprise on his face. The surprise turned into the biggest laugh. From the bottom of his lungs, Sam started to laugh uproariously, slapping the table intermittently, next to where he was sitting.

Mondo said, "Hey Brudda. Things are kinda tense. You want to share the joke? Might make everyone feel a little bedda."

Sam forced a measure of composure as he managed to say, "The Witness. I think I figured it out," He broke into another fit of laughter.

"Sam, is this absolutely necessary right now?" Cyclops demanded.

Sam took a couple of deep breaths and said. "The Witness planned on two Remis being here."

The statement got everyone's attention.

"How do you figure that?" Cyclops asked now curious.

Sam forced himself to calm down. "When I got my power, before I became a New Mutant, my preacher took me aside and gave me a warning. He said that the more powerful a man is, the greater the temptation to think of himself as a god. That's not just mutants, but anyone. These rich old guys who start affairs with young women while cheating on their wives are under the same delusion. He said that every man has this temptation. The pastor was right. Think about the attitudes we have seen. Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Magneto, the Shadow King and even you Professor," Sam wasn't laughing any more.

"You tried to be god and for your sins, Onslaught was created. I don't know what the Gamemaster is, but he is not God. The Witness made a deal that the Gamemaster would save a Remi, so the Gamemaster looked through the probablistic timelines until he found the Remi that he wanted and the Gamemaster kept his bargain, not realizing that due to the probablistic nature of the paradox, at least one Remi should have escaped on his own! After the Gamemaster helped the first Remi, he probably didn't look through the remaining collapsing timelines anymore, totally confident that no one else could have possibly escaped. The Witness played the Gamemaster by making sure that there would be at least two Remis on site to take care of business. When we have the time, if one of the Remis wants to do it, he should look through the memories of that Gambit who was Renee's father and get that information to reconstruct the Witness Program for the Danger Room and then we could ask him." Sam said.

Gambit and young Remi looked at each other. They didn't need to recreate the Witness. Something inside each of them told them that Sam was right.

Younger Remi said. "Logically, that means that another Remi could pop out at any moment. I wonder how history will be different when we deal with the Kor'Es'Rebak with our powers and...oh boy."

"Oh boy, what" Gambit said, a touch of dread in his voice. What had he forgotten?

"We have no reason to assume that the Kor'Es'Rebak will attack the same way they did in Cody's dad's timeline and every reason to think that things will be different. The attack was a few months from now. The campaign lasted for six months. It is too close to now to not take action, " the younger Shi'ar prince said.

Gambit looked at his counterpart in total horror. He had been so focused on the Shadow King, that he had forgotten Shi'ar History, particularly the historic event in which the previous Gambit had literally saved the Empire and set in motion the events that led to his parents' official joining, and his conception! Though their personal origins could not be affected, Gambit felt just as strong sense of loyalty and duty to the Shi'ar people that his young counterpart did. This could not be ignored, yet he had been so focused on the issue of the Shadow King and...

_You feel like a moron! We get it! _Jaysean said telepathically followed by every other telepath in the room complaining about Gambit's lack of shielding.

"Sorry everyone," Gambit said. "One of us has to go to Chandilar and help Aman."

"I should do it. You have the experience with the Shadow King. I'll need several X-Men, if they will come." Young Remi said. "Aban in particular."

"I've lost my telepathy," Xavier objected.

"Remi's telepathy can offset that. The reason that you must be there is that the Noble Houses need to see you at Aman's side in what will be the greatest crisis of her career," Gambit said.

"Which X-Men do you want to send?" Scott asked with a deep frown. He understood the seriousness of what Young Remi and Gambit were saying, but he was not looking forward to having his forces split.

"As many non telepaths as possible. Call in the other X-teams. We can take volunteers. We need to call them in anyway Cable, could you do that, please?" Gambit said.

Cable looked up surprised, nodded and left the room.

"While I am contacting Aman and bringing her up to date, we need Chamber to introduce his students. We need to know what abilities that we can call upon."

The older Chamber rose to his feet and said. "You've met Jaysean Miller. He is the highest Alpha telepath ever recorded. He rates at nineteen point four, or forty five percent of an Omega. He is also an alpha telekinetic and an alpha teleporter. He is twenty-one. Twenty year old Armando Fernandes is from Brazil He is rated a seventeen point three alpha telepath, a little above Jean and Rachel. Wave Armando, so everyone is sure who I am talking about." Armando raised his hand.

"Rachel's abilities are the same as her mothers. She is eighteen years of age. Joe Bailey is Jean's nephew. Like Jaysean, Joe is a telepath, telekinetic and teleporter. He is a seventeen point one telepath. He is a stronger telekinetic and teleporter than Jaysean. How old are you, Joe?"

"I'm twenty-eight," Joe replied. "My wife, Carrie, is a beta telekinetic. She is not trained as an X-Man," It was obvious that Joe didn't want Carrie on any missions.

Chamber looked at Joe but didn't say anything. He turned to Gambit. "You've met Ji'an. He is from China and he is twenty. You know Renee and Cody and you know their abilities"

"Lars Davis is twenty-one years of age. He is an alpha telepath, rated at sixteen point eight. He is also an alpha teleporter. He is not telekinetic. " Lars, a lanky young man about five foot ten with sandy brown hair and blue eyes, raised his thumb in the air.

"Omar Ablatov is fifteen years of age," Chamber said of a short skinny kid with Eurasian features, who was about five foot six. "He is an alpha telepath at sixteen point four. He is from Kyrgyzstan. Marta Lillieva, John Singh and Sabina Schmidt are fourteen years of age. Marta is a beta telepath rated twelve point five. She is also an alpha telekinetic. I don't remember John and Sabina's strengths," the older Chamber said "It doesn't matter. They are too young for serious fighting" He looked at young Chamber. Omar let just a flash of annoyance slip through his shields, deliberately.

Jean suspected that there was an undercurrent to what Chamber was saying. The younger Chamber had been in a lot of battles since she had known him. There was a hardness to his adult counterpart, like he had been in a few battles too many, like he was trying to protect the teenagers. She had seen too many battles in her own life. What were these constant battles doing to her soul?

Joey, no Joe, she corrected herself, was determined to keep Carrie out of it. A couple of the teachers looked very uncomfortable. They had no desire to be in this conversation. Jean's thoughts were interrupted as Charlie piped in, using a tone that everyone recognized as a young adolescent not wanting to be left out. "I'm kind of a touch telepath,"

Chamber sighed. "I guess that is true, Charlie, but since you have only had your powers for three months... this is Charlie Lehnsherr, the son of Rogue and Magneto. He has both of their powers. Since he is so new to them, we are not yet sure how strong he is. He does have one advantage over Rogue. He can turn her power on and off at will."

Rogue stared at Charlie who grinned sheepishly. "Poppa's power is why you can touch me without gloves." he said, rising he gave her a peck on the cheek to her total shock.

"What about me?" a blond first grader said.

Chamber answered exasperated. "I hadn't forgotten you, Alan. This is Alan Ames. As you can tell, at seven years of age, Alan is an unusually young telepath. He is an eleven point nine. His telepathy went active about six months ago. He is getting stronger with age, so we will have to wait and see how strong he gets. Alan, I didn't mention you is because this is a grown up fight that we are talking about. Little kids would just get hurt."

Alan hung his head, embarrassed.

One of the teachers, a petite thin red head raised her hand. "I'm not into fighting, but I am telepathic. I am rated at around nine. I am a beta telekinetic and I am a short range teleporter." she said. My name is Beverly Rhyne."

"Why do you categorize the telepaths with numbers?" younger Jono asked. "Is that some kind of rating system based on telepathic strength that you developed in your future?"

"Yes. Omegas are nineteen point nine and up. We have never seen higher than twenty. Alphas are thirteen to nineteen point forty five. Betas are below thirteen." Chamber answered his younger counterpart. "It is not an absolute rating system, because certain telepaths have abilities unique to themselves, but it gives a general idea of one's strengths. The rating system for telekinetics and teleporters is.. "

_Next! _Jaysean said impatiently. _If we don't move on this, then there either won't be anything there or the defenses will be impregnable._

"The kid is right," Cable said. If that was a test by Cable to see how the young man would react to being called a kid, then Jaysean passed the test. There was no sense of annoyance transmitted.

"Telepathy is a secondary ability for Bryce O'Connor. He is a mid beta, around seven point five. His primary ability involves heat and light manipulation. He is sixteen."

"Sylvia Burroughs is an alpha telekinetic. She is almost as strong as Jean and Rachel. She is seventeen years of age," The petite blond girl raised her hand.

"Ned Owens is an alpha teleporter. He is fifteen." A skinny curly blond boy raised his hand.

"Pavel Kim has extreme reflexes, physical strength, dexterity, advanced hearing and smell. He is seventeen years of age and he is from Kazakhstan. Yes there are Koreans in Kazakhstan." Chamber said.

"I want Wolfgang, Matsuo and Somtow to come with me to Chandilar. They shoot energy beams and they have been in fights before," Young Remi said referring to three young men.

Chamber indicated a Central Asian woman of about thirty. "This is Kristina Falk. She can fly."

"I'm also a teacher. This is my daughter, Lisa," she said referring to the little girl sitting in her lap.

"Everyone else is either low powered, their mutation is not of fighting value or they are too new to their powers to be front line fighters. To the best of my knowledge, no one else is telepathic," Chamber said. There it was again, that protectiveness, Jean thought.

"The little kids are either the children of mutants or orphans." Nine of the kids had obvious mutations of one kind or another.

"Other than the telepathic boy, do any of the little kids have powers yet?" Sam asked.

"What about it kids? Do you have powers, yet?" asked Adult Chamber. The little kids starting to shake their heads vigorously saying No!

"Wait a minute! Where's Norma? Is she with Renee?" Sylvia asked apprehensively.

Norma wasn't with Renee. To the utter horror of the new arrivals, Norma hadn't made the second trip through time.

"A ship is on its way," Gambit said quietly.


	4. Chapter 4

"You won't find it," Nightingale said to Young Renee. While Scott and the others were returning from dealing with the spies, Nightingale decided that it was a good time to talk with her younger self.

"Leave me alone!" the younger girl said belligerently. The bitterness and rage were evident on her face and in her mannerisms. If Nightingale had Wolverine's nose, she would be able to smell it.

"I was looking for it the day before yesterday. Daddy's tombstone. It isn't here," Nightingale said simply.

"He's not your daddy!" Young Renee spun facing Nightingale, her red eyes flashing with total rage.

"Oh really, Miss Pris! Up till the paradox, we were the same person! He was my daddy too! I remember when he put on that Halloween vampire costume! I remember.." Nightingale's sentence was interrupted by the sudden screaming attack by her younger counterpart. Nightingale stepped into Young Renee's attack, catching her arm and with a judo throw, landing on top of her.

They struggled on the ground. Suddenly the two young women stopped fighting and collapsed. Ororo came out looking for young Renee and saw that they were in skin to skin contact. Grabbing Nightingale's foot, she pulled them apart. A few seconds later, Young Renee opened her eyes. She bolted to a seated position and looked at Nightingale in horror, raising one hand to her mouth. She sprang to her feet and fled as Nightingale sat up.

"Are you alright child?" Ororo said worriedly.

Nightingale nodded. "When we touched, we saw each other's memories. I saw everything in her life. She saw what the Shadow King made me do." Nightingale took a shuddered breath. "Ororo, she's pregnant."

"What? Are you sure?" Ororo said. "That poor child! She must be terrified!"

"She is. It was some boy I had never met. Anyway, she never accepted Momma remarrying. Charlie came too soon after Daddy's passing. She needs help. Go and find her, I'll be okay." Nightingale said as she rose to her feet.

"You are a good person Renee," Ororo said as she started after Young Renee;

Ororo came around to the front of the building and stopped. She could have sworn that the tree she was looking at was smaller the last time she had seen it. In it's branches, sat Young Renee crying. Ororo watched her for several minutes before catching a wind and rising up to sit on another branch.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ororo asked.

"Did she tell you?" Renee asked.

"That you are with child? Yes." Ororo answered.

"Auntie 'Ro, we were going to get married. He had arranged for a job working for the Kirghiz Government! I love him and he is gone! I wish Magneto had grabbed someone else!" Renee said burying her head in her hands.

Ororo didn't speak for a moment. They sat there. It was hard for Ororo to believe that not even three hours had elapsed since Renee and her friends had arrived. Subjectively, less than four hours ago, Renee had been in her timeline, planning a future with a young man who she would never see again.

"Is she the real Renee or am I?" Renee asked.

"You are both real child. That baby in you is real. What we are all facing is real. I don't know what kind of person your Remi is, but I know that part of the older Remy is my friend and I know that if you want it, he will help you. You and your child." Ororo said.

Sitting there, Renee looked at the warm summer sky and said nothing.. They could both see Jaysean sitting in the roof, maintaining his shield.

"I have to ask one question about where you are from. Kyrgyzstan?" Ororo asked. "Why there and not Genosha?"

"Genosha was nuked. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the economy of Kyrgyzstan went with it. There aren't a lot of people there, five or six million, half of whom were not Kyrgyz. We and other mutant groups made a deal with the government. We spend one day a week helping build their infrastructure in exchange for sanctuary." Renee said. "That is why so many of the people who came through time were mutants that the older me and that other Remi didn't recognize. I got that from her memories. A lot of mutants from around the world fled to Kyrgyzstan after the U.S. and half of the world's countries passed mutant registration laws about nine years ago. Camps. Sentinels. Our world was not a happy place," Renee said.

Ororo didn't know what to say.

Renee grabbed the tree branch. Her face suddenly became pale, her voice ragged as she said, "I think I need to see Uncle Hank."

"How's she doing Hank?" Nightingale asked. What she could understand of the machine reading was positive but it never hurt to ask the doctor.

"I think she is going to be fine. I don't want her to use her telepathy for awhile, but I anticipate a full recovery." Hank replied.

"I just came from the debriefing upstairs. Remi says that we will have to relocate, perhaps today," Renee said.

Hank pushed his glasses up his nose. "I don't suppose our young prince has a place in mind for a new headquarters?"

"I don't think so, but his reasons are sound. Thought you should know," Older Renee said.

"So, what are our guests like? I haven't had the chance to meet any of them," Hank asked. There was an eagerness to his voice, like the discovery of another group of time displaced people was the neatest thing since pizza. "Any chance that one of them is me?"

"No. Just a duplicate of me, Jono and Remi. Believe me, that is more than enough."

"What's this about a bunch of young children?" Hank asked. "Bobby came down and said that there was something like fifty or sixty people that came through time including a bunch of children. What is the story?"

"As near as I can tell, the Gamemaster waited until the last moment before he approached Remi in my timeline. These other people had a little more warning and also had a huge number of people in their Danger Room. An elementary school of second generation mutants were brought through along with some teachers and parents. I guess they planned some sort of big training session." Renee answered.

"Not so loud," Betsy said. "I feel like I have a hangover."

As Betsy started to lift her hand, Renee caught it in her bare hand. Focusing her power, Renee felt a little energy leave her into Betsy.

As expected. Betsy's eyes snapped open as Renee disengaged her hand.

"What did you do and who are you?" Betsy said as she sat up in the bed.

McCoy intervened. "Betsy, this is Renee. She is a relative of Remy's. Her ability involves growth. She just accelerated your healing,

"Hank, we need some help here," Ororo said. Logan carried younger Renee in his arms into the medlab. She was unconscious.

"What happened?" Nightingale asked, surprised as Logan laid the girl on the nearest exam table.

"We were talking and she suddenly got pale. We started towards the medlab when she collapsed. Logan saw it and picked her up and here we are." Storm replied.

"Hank, she's pregnant," Nightingale said.

Hank nodded. "I can see that. About ten weeks along, I would guess. She is emaciated. Whoever she was seeing for her prenatal care really dropped the ball."

"She is only about five weeks pregnant," Nightingale said.

Hank looked up from his instruments. "How do you know that?"

"We... touched skin. We had a reaction and both of us collapsed. While we were on the ground, I saw her memories and she saw mine. I remember her version of you, telling her how far along she was just a couple of days ago."

"I was her primary? I would have never let her out of the medlab in this shape." He went and injected something into her arm. He started an I.V, "I'll need a pint of your blood if you don't mind."

As Renee started to roll up her shirt sleeve, Hank suddenly looked up. "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Your power fundamentally accelerates growth, correct? It is not healing but growth?"

"Yes, why do you.." realization dawned. "You don't mean that I," she began horrified.

"I think that when you two touched, you power kicked in and accelerated the growth of the unborn baby. In nourishing the baby, everything in Renee has been drained. I have got to get some food into her system intravenously. I will put two pints of your blood into her. That will help with the anemia and the food that you have already eaten which is already in your blood will help feed her and the baby. We need to hurry. Logan, get Cody and at least one Remi."

"I told Cable. They're coming," Betsy said as she got out of bed, wrapping a robe around herself.

"Where do you think you are going?" Hank asked.

"Thanks to Renee, I feel fine, so I am joining the mission." she said as she left the medlab.

A minute later, Doctor Reyes hurried into the medlab with Cody and the younger Remi.

"I need a pint of blood from each of them, stat. She is highly anemic." Hank said as he injected a needle into Nightingale's arm.

"What happened?" Cody demanded.

Hank looked over Cody's shoulder at Older Renee, who was sitting at a table with the needle in her arm, her blood filling an I.V. Bag. She slightly shook her head. "She has become anemic and needs some fresh blood. I think that a pint a piece should help fix her right up," Hank said.

"Is she going to be okay?" Cody asked.

"I am pretty sure she will be just fine," Hank replied smoothly.

Remi looked at Hank with a bland expression. Hank didn't need to be a telepath to know that Remi didn't completely believe him.


	5. Chapter 5

The strike team consisted of Cyclops, Wolverine, Joseph, Storm, Cable, Iceman Rogue and Psylocke. Psylocke pointed out that she should accompany the team to be seen, to let them know that there was a cure to their weapon.

Jean and Rachel wanted to go on the mission but Gambit nixed the idea. "We can't send most of out telepaths on this mission. Not with that psionic weapon involved. Betsy needs to go and Nathan is the best combat telepath we have. We will keep a reserve to rescue the team if necessary, but this is the best team available with who we have."

One of Lilandra's presents to the X-Men was a completely cloaked spy satellite. Not only did it give the X-Men a bird's eye view, it programmed any spy satellites over the X-Mansion from seeing what was there. After examining the lay of the land of where they were to go, a plan was devised. Psylocke teleported the strike force to the location and they were off.

Gambit held a link with both Cable and Betsy who were linked to each other. He felt like he was switching a tv remote. He could literally see and hear what each one of them saw and heard. He could switch back and forth, between them or let his mind take in what they were both experiencing.

They could both draw from his strength if they needed it and he discovered that he didn't need to be on the astral plane to stay linked. There was a feeling of nascent power in the link, a fraction of the incredible power that Remi had felt on the Dresden which was now available for any of the three to draw upon.

He could feel Jean's mind querying him. Gambit stepped onto the astral plane. He could see the links, tying him to Cable and Psylocke. Jean was in front of him, offering him a link. Gambit responded, their different colored bands fusing, adding her strength to the group. She sent links to Cable and Psylocke.

Gambit looked behind Jean. Except for Mrs. Rhyne and that boy, Bryce, all of the other telepaths at the school were on the astral plane, watching. Even little Alan had managed to find the astral plane. Gambit had a feeling that the little boy was stronger than Chamber thought he was. As Gambit looked around, he noticed something that he had not seen before. His awareness being enhanced, he could sense other telepaths on the astral plane.

Leaving the mission in Cable's hands, Gambit reached out to the first one, a woman in New Hampshire who was having a telepathic conversation with her teenage daughter. A retarded young man in Montreal was trying to read someone's mind. A man in Maine was having a difficult time blocking out other people's thoughts. These telepaths were not actually on the astral plane, but their activities caused their presence to be detected. There were others, many others. Gambit realized that this was how the Shadow King would find the telepaths that he would enslave. If the Shadow King didn't know about this, he would soon. Time was not on the good guys' side.

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Carrie Bailey looked at the children. When Magneto had thrown them through the portal, it had been pell mell as to who had been thrown in. If she hadn't been physically holding her children at that time...She didn't want to dwell on that subject.

The children all had red eyes from crying. It was early afternoon. Paige and Jubilee had stepped in and had found some paper and crayons and they had the kids coloring. It would be a temporary solution. A couple of the children were furtively looking at Alan. It didn't take much for Carrie to figure out that they had asked Alan to intercede on their behalf, thinking that since he was an active mutant, he might have some pull to get them home. Alan was focused with his eyes glazed over.

Carrie recognized the look. The boy was on the astral plain. Since he didn't seem distressed, Carrie was of the opinion that it was best to leave him alone. In addition to those Jono introduced, there were three other female teachers, four mothers, one father and eight low powered and four newly mid to high powered teen mutants who had come through. She wasn't sure where the teenagers had gotten off to.

They were never going home. The weight of that was just starting to set in on the adults, all of whom had lost husbands and children of their own. Carrie looked at Mrs. Nishima. She was one of the mothers who was barely holding it together. Though one son had come through, her husband and two older children had not been in the Danger Room. One of the teachers, an older mutant in her mid forties, named Mrs. Benitez suddenly whipped off the backpack she was wearing. Opening it she pulled out a tablet and turned it on.

As the device booted up, she exclaimed, "Yes!"

Paige walked up to her and asked, "What is that Ma'am? Some kind of computer?"

The woman glanced at Paige as she called up a movie. "Yes. We call this a tablet. That's right. They haven't started building these yet. I have all of my movies on this thing and all of my music and my home videos and it survived!" Mrs. Benitez squealed in joy.

Carrie pulled out her tablet with the same results. Inspired, she called up a cartoon her children liked and set the tablet on a table for all of the children to see. Forgetting their coloring, the children gathered around to watch. The other teachers had all been wearing backpacks as had all of the children and a couple of the parents. Everyone who had a tablet was able to turn them on successfully, even four of the first graders who had their own devices.

"How did your computers survive Magneto's magnetism?" Jubilee asked.

"They were coated with a Shi'ar polymer that provides protection," Mrs. Benitez answered.

"You might want to back your files up on Cerebro, just in case,"Paige said.

The teachers realized that the girl was right. As soon as the cartoon ended, all of the adults headed for the elevator with the children in tow.

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"Alan, what are you doing?" Adult Chamber asked, annoyed.

"I'm just watching," the little boy replied.

"This is not a game. Get off the astral plain!" Chamber snapped.

"My mom said if I could figure it out, I could come here," Alan protested. He was almost in tears.

"Go back to the mansion!" Chamber thundered.

Alan shrank from adult Chamber but he didn't leave.

"What is your problem, mate? The little bloke isn't causing a problem," young Jono said stepping between adult Chamber and Alan.

"We don't have time for a training session. He is just going to get in the way! Now go!" the astral plain reacted to his anger. His psionic energy generated what appeared to be a turbulent cloud something like what the Shadow King had generated a few days before.

"That is enough Starsmore! This IS a training exercise as much as anything else! Boy better learn as much as he can as fast as he can, especially if we are going to have to fight this Shadow King, guy. Might be the difference between life and death," Armando said stepping alongside younger Jono.

The older Chamber looked at his younger counterpart and Armando, staring at them. As he gained control of his emotions, the cloud dissipated. "John! Keep an eye on the kid."

"You and I have work to do," Chamber snapped to his younger counterpart. "While the strike team is busy, I want to build a secondary network. Fernandes is right: this is a training session." With that Older Chamber reached a tendril to young Jono.

The moment the tendril touched the younger mutant, a blast ensued which threw both of them off the astral plane. The buffeting rocked everyone in the vicinity. Alan fled.

"What happened!" Gambit demanded.

"I think it was some kind of feedback. It happened when the two Chambers tried to link up. Don't try and link up with your counterpart," Armando answered.

"Good to know. Are they okay?" Gambit asked.

Jean slipped out of the astral plain and did a quick scan. Though groggy with splitting headaches, both Chambers seemed to be okay. Alan was scared but fine.

"Jono was right. This is a good time to practice," Armando said a moment later.

Realizing that not only was Armando right, the X-Men needed some time to practice with the newcomers. Jean severed her connection to Gambit and the strike team and she reached out her red orange link to Armando. His link was teal colored, The bands interlinked. Jean and Armando each made a link with Emma, followed by Joe, Rachel, Omar, Lars. John, Sabina and Marta. Tendrils of various colors interlinked as a web was formed. Finally Jean reached out to Jaysean and young Remi. .

With each addition, Jean could feel the increase in strength. When Jaysean and Young Remi joined, Jean just could not believe how much stronger the link became. She honestly had trouble estimating how powerful the link was. The sum was definitely greater than the individual parts. With the additional strength, she also could sense the other telepaths sd Gambit could. The linkage was intoxicating. She felt invincible. Why couldn't the Shadow King attack when she felt this strong?

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"So Grandpa, any idea where we should go?" Nightingale said as she walked into the War Room. The sound of the children and teachers could be heard down the hall.

"We haven't discussed it yet. Obviously, Jaysean can't keep his shield up forever," Charles replied.

"Sylvia said that she was going to spot Jaysean for awhile," Older Renee replied.

"Good. You knew her counterpart. What was she like?" Charles asked.

Renee smile. "My Sylvia? She was one of the most boy crazy girls I ever met. She was always with one guy or another. I don't mean that she was sleeping around, but she had to be on some guy's arm. She always had to be in love." Renee thoughts drifted.

"Do you think Remi is right?" Charles asked.

The question surprised Renee. She was twenty years old and her grandfather was asking her advice about what could be called war strategy. She looked at him. One of the things that she did learn during her time as a hound was how to read people. Her grandfather really wanted to know her opinion.

She started to speak, "When we went to the mansion. It was leveled. I know that you saw this in Remi's memories. Now we don't know for sure, but it is a safe bet that either the Shadow King or his hounds did it. Too many people in the government know that the mansion is our headquarters. A SWAT team could come at any time. It would be best not to be here, although I must admit that I dreamt of coming home. I am going to hate to leave so soon."

A little girl poked her head around the doorway to the War Room before being called away by a teacher.

"That's the other thing, " Renee said. "Those little kids are orphans now. We are all that they have."

Young Jono walked into the room. "The team has taken over the facility, No casualties on either side."

Charles and Renee let out their breath.

"I figured you would be on the astral plain." Renee said.

Jono told them what happened. "I have a huge headache and I don't want to think about telepathy for awhile," the young Englishman said.

Nightingale pulled off her glove and touched Jono. He breathed out with the sound of relief. "Thanks." Jono sat, closed his eyes and joined the others on the astral plain.

Charles looked longingly at Jono, wishing that he could be with him.

This was not the Charles Xavier that Renee had grown up with. Her grandfather had always been full of confidence. This man was beaten, broken. How he could possibly help Grandma was beyond her. Suddenly, she took her still bare hand placed it on her grandfather's forehead. She felt the wild energies flow into him. She had tried this, once before. For whatever reason, she couldn't repair the damage that prevented him from walking. Maybe she could heal his telepathy.

She took her hand away. "Any improvement?"

Charles looked stunned. " I felt something...shift inside. I don't know what it was, but no telepathy. Thanks for trying."

Renee was disappointed. "Well, it was worth a shot." She hesitated.

"Grandpa, the other Renee is laid up in medlab and I think that it might be partly my fault," Renee unloaded.

"What do you mean?

She explained what had happened.

Charles pursed his lips. Charles could hear the guilt in her voice. "This is not your fault. You know that this is hardly the first time a mutant has accidentally hurt another mutant. Hank will do everything medically possible."

"I know. It is not as if I haven't killed before, but still..."Renee said.

"The baby may be fine," Charles said.

"What baby?"Charlie asked walking in.

"Never mind. What's up?" Renee said

"I was just wondering how the mission is going. Is Momma all right?" Charlie asked, trying to sound casual.

"The last we heard, everything's fine," Renee said. "We are just trying to figure out where we should relocate." Renee was interrupted by two little boys and a little girl running into the War Room with Mrs. Rhyne just a step behind them.

As she shooed the children out of the room, Renee continued, "Anyway, Grandpa, we probably shouldn't all be at one place. Muir Island is too obvious. Genosha is probably a bad idea."

"What about the dead zones?" Mrs. Rhyne said from the doorway. Nightingale was a little surprised that the woman had made the suggestion. She read Mrs. Rhyne as the kind of woman who was quite content to be a school teacher, housewife and be as far from the battles that would soon come as possible.

"Hey that might be a good idea!" Charlie said excitedly. "Since we just discovered them, like two years ago, the Shadow King won't know about them."

Charles said. "What is a dead zone?"

"It is a place on Earth where you can not access the astral plane. It is some kind of bubble or something. You can use your telepathy in the area, but there is something about the magnetic pull or something that prevents a telepath from outside from reading anything telepathic in the area and no telepath can get a signal out either." Charlie replied.

"Do you know where they are?"Nightengale asked.

"There is one in Kyrgyzstan. That is how we found out about them. I know that there are two or three in the United States and one in Canada and some others. I am not sure where they are. Mr. Bailey might know," Charlie said.

"Colfax, Washington, Joplin Missouri, Frontier Saskatchewan, there is one in Chiapas, southern Mexico and one near the south coast of the Dominican Republic, near Haiti, among others," Alice Rhyne answered.

Everyone stared at the woman in surprise.

She shrugged. "My husband was involved in looking for the dead zones," she said simply and she left.

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On the astral plain, Jean and the others were stretching their combined muscles when Alan appeared on the astral plain. Jean had to admit, the little guy had courage.

"Can I uh?" he asked tentatively.

"Alan, this is new for us. We are not sure how this works, You want to help us learn how to do this safely, right?" Jean said.

"Can I?" Alan asked hopefully.

"Do you see where Gambit is?" Jean pointed towards Gambit, still linked to Psylocke and Cable.

Alan nodded.

"What we need you to do is to watch us close. If it looks like something is wrong, we need you run over and tell Gambit. He is busy helping with the mission we talked about earlier, so he can't watch us. Make sure nobody sneaks up on us. Can you do that?" Jean asked.

"Sure!"Alan said.

Jean smiled and focused on the link. Alan was too little to realize that his assignment was make work designed to keep him out of harm's way. He was too little to be exposed to this kind of power.

"We are going to have to recruit all of these telepaths and we are going to have to do it fast," Emma said. Being linked, they all could sense just how many telepaths there were for the Shadow King to enslave.

"What are we going to do about the ones who won't join us?" Rachel asked.

"We will have to give them suppression collars to prevent them from showing up on the astral plane," Jean said.

Except for Alan, everyone looked at Jean as if she were nuts.

Jean looked embarrassed. "Okay that was a dumb thought"

"We will have to do something more drastic," Joe said.

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After the psionic weapon had been been destroyed along the information on its construction had been erased from the minds of those who created it as well as the computers, the X-Men returned home with the four comatose telepaths. The General had made some threats about retaliation. Cyclops pointed out that the owners of the Shi'ar spaceship that crashed in New Mexico were paying attention to the events and would take a dim view of any such action. Paylocke used her shadow teleportation to get everyone home.

"The Gamemaster gave them the specs for the weapon," Psylocke said as soon as they materialized in the War Room

"Fine. We knew he was in this one way or another. I agree with Gambit. We are going to have to relocate. The roof might as well have a bullseye on it," Cable said.

"We may have a place to go, but I am concerned about financing. All that I have left are the funds that you and Remi moved," Charles said.

"Don't worry about that, Aban. I am not hurting when it comes to money." Remi said.

"Warren also transferred some money to me which is in a nice, safe place that he doesn't know about," Scott assured his former mentor.

"Let's start packing up, especially Cerebro and all of the Shi'ar tech. Remember, the cloaking machines go last. I have a place for us to go to for a few days." Gambit said.

By three o'clock, the mansion was again lifeless. Except for the Blackbird, everything and everyone had been teleported to an empty warehouse that Gambit had known about in Brooklyn, Gambit and Joe had to teleport to Brooklyn and take a cab to the address. From there it was a simple matter of teleporting the equipment and the people. Gambit and Joe went to a specific bank that held a large amount of cash in a safe deposit box. Emptying the box, they returned to the warehouse where Gambit gave the new women enough money to buy clothing for the children and themselves. No one would take notice of a woman buying children''s clothes without the child present. A man would be noticed. The displaced teenagers and Generation X went along for new clothes for themselves as well as to help carry the purchases for the young children. For the next few hours the warehouse was the most secure place in New York as the various X-Men who didn't go shopping, stood guard. Several movies were put on tablets to entertain the children since no one wanted to try and divide up almost forty first graders for shopping.

Four hours after dark, the mansion was hit by a swat team in power armor suits. They found nothing but wet floors courtesy of a good mansion wide frosting by Iceman. Even the fridge and cupboards were empty.


	6. Chapter 6

"So where are we going?" Scott asked as they rode in the Blackbird.

"I bought an isolated, bankrupt farm in eastern Ohio through a dummy corporation a few years ago. This was before I joined the X-Men. I set it up as a fall-back after the Morlocks," Gambit replied.

Everyone could see that, even though he had his memories back. Remi still felt responsible for the Morlocks.

"How long will it take to get there?" Joe asked.

"About an hour," Gambit replied. It had been a while since Gambit had been to the farm. The three men along with Iceman and Wolverine would reconnoiter to ensure that the farm had not been discovered. They landed at a small airport that didn't even have a tower. They taxied to a private hanger which Joe telekinetically opened and the blackbird rolled in, the door closing behind it.

Gambit reached out and erased the memory of the jet's landing from the airport staff. Bobby hopped out of the plane and quickly cooled the Blackbird to room temperature. When they shut down the Blackbird, they would have to turn off the cloak. They didn't want an anomalous heat signature from the airport to be spotted from space, just in case someone was looking that way. Gambit had kept a minivan registered to one of his dummy corporations in the hanger. Unfortunately, there was a real possibility that the minivan wouldn't run. He hadn't had the chance to check on it since Magneto had blasted the world with that EM pulse.

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"Gumbo. I am impressed," Wolverine said as he wandered through the large three story house. "It is big, but I don't know if it is large enough to hold everyone."

Gambit shrugged as he turned on the dining room light. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the lights were on. The van had been in working order as well,

"It just has to work for the time being. The two barns have been remodeled and converted to sleeping porches each complete with bathrooms and showers. We can put the little boys in one and the little girls in the other one. There are dividers that we can use to create rooms if we need to. Storm and Jubilee would be excellent chaperones for the girls. I would recommend their teachers, but they need the night to mourn. Bobby, Sam and Cody would make good chaperones for the little boys," Gambit said. "If everyone doubles up, we should be all right."

"I am going to go back and start bringing people over." Joe said.

"Make sure that you tell everyone before you bring them here no telepathy while they are here," Gambit said. "Seriously,"

"Fine. I'll tell everyone," Joe said and left.

"Gumbo, I hate to say this, but you have not been in control of your telepathy since you remembered who you were," Logan said. The feeling of frustration due to his own lack of memory tinged his voice. "Do you have the discipline to keep quiet?"

Gambit looked away. Logan was right. "We can't take the chance. I'll stay at the warehouse," he said as Joe arrived with Jaysean and the first group. Within two minutes, everyone was at the farm except for Cable, Adult Chamber and Bishop who planned to guard their equipment.

When Gambit suggested going to the warehouse, the Professor and Cyclops both nixed the idea.

"It is like you said earlier today, that would put too many telepaths in one place. Besides, you will have to be the focus when we fight the Shadow King,"

He was right. Remi knew that he was right. It was guilt talking, not good strategy. _Think like a general Rem'aillon._ He said to himself.

"I know where you can hide," Charles suggested.

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After explaining what a dead zone was, it was agreed that Gambit would spend the night in Joplin. Since there would be no way to stay in contact except by telephone, it was decided that a teleporter needed to accompany him. Joe volunteered as long as his family came with him. He insisted that they were not going to be separated on their first night. For security, Charles insisted that no one else should be brought in on where Remi would spend the night or talk of the dead zones at all.

It galled Remi to realize that this was necessary because he had not had the time to sharpen his skills. He had to fight the temptation to take it personally, as if he were a failure. The memories of being Gambit were too fresh for him to shake off the feeling totally, but he reminded himself that he was Rem'aillon Neramani. This was as much for the Empire as much as for Earth. If it meant hat he had to sleep in Joplin for awhile, so be it.

Though Alan had shown remarkable discipline, it was decided to take him along, just to be safe. What surprised everyone was when Mrs. Rhyne, not aware of the plan to send Remi to a dead zone approached and asked to go to one, herself. She explained. "You know that some people talk in their sleep? I am told that I do it telepathically."

Joe had been to Joplin before, so he teleported the group near a nice hotel. Unfortunately, there was no electricity in that part of town. It had been just six months since Magneto had blasted the world with an EM pulse that devastated most forms of electronic devices. Power grids went down world wide. Major cities were the first to be brought back online. Since Joplin was a mid-sized town, only parts of the town had electricity restored, but not all of it.

They caught a cab and found vacancies at a much smaller hotel. After taking three rooms, Gambit pulled out a thousand dollars and divided it among the adults. "Take a cab and go have dinner. Bring me back a cheeseburger or a ham sandwich, something like that. Joe, when you get back, we have to run a quick errand," Gambit said.

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"Dis LeBeau," the comfortingly familiar voice of Jean-Luc LeBeau said over the phone. Remi was calling from St Louis. Since Joplin was in southwest Missouri and St. Louis was in southeastern Missouri, he was far enough away to protect Joplin's location.

"It me," Remi said using his Cajun accent. He personally wished he could be doing this in person, but Joe had never been to Louisiana and he couldn't teleport somewhere he had not been.

"Ce va?" Jean-Luc asked. He knew that something important was going on for such a strange call.

"Hope to see you soon. Took de chillen to de parade. Saw a float with bamboo hunters." Remi said. He could imagine Jean-Luc's reaction. "Hunters in the parade," was a code phrase of the most dire warning. Though the next three sentences Remi said would sound innocuous, the words were part of a complex code of the Thieves Guild. While his new friends were eating dinner, Remi prepared his coded message. Even with a Shi'ar computer Lillandra had left him, it took him an hour to prepare. Remi switched to a light conversation for a couple of minutes and hung up.

Jean-Luc Le Beau hurriedly pulled a pen and paper and translated the message from Remi. "Telepathy silence immediately. Threat of capture and exposure of guild imminent if not done. Gather guildmasters and leading strategists. You pick locale. Will be in touch in two days."

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Hank McCoy had to admit: Gambit was thorough. In the back room of the main floor, Gambit had arranged for an infirmary. It was adequate to maintain the vitals of the four telepaths who were waiting for Gambit to repair their minds. Jean and Emma had both said that they didn't feel confident trying it without Gambit's supervision. Personally, Hank hoped that Gambit would get to it soon. Their vitals were slowly slipping.

Young Renee had awakened for awhile and she ate something before falling asleep. Rogue had been furious that no one had told her that Renee was ill. Betsy apologized. "I didn't know that you two were related or I would have said something!"

After Hank's assurances that younger Renee was over the worst of it, Cody and Rogue reluctantly went to get something to eat.

"How are they doing, Hank?" younger Remi said entering the infirmary. He walked over to a desk and casually sat on it.

Hank thought that seeing doubles would be like looking at twins. He was wrong. It felt...weird. Not one to let that stop him, he forged on. "They are stable. We will have to wait for Gambit to have some time to repair them, that's all."

At the term, "Gambit," Remi flinched a little.

"Sorry," Hank said.

"For what? He became Gambit. I am still amazed at what he did when he was my age. Renee told me the date that they left. It was eight days before we did. Sam came up with a theory that the Gamemaster looked through a bunch of timelines until he found the Remi that he wanted to help and after he was rescued, he stopped looking, not realizing that it was possible for another Remi to escape. For all we know, another one could pop in at any moment," Remi answered.

"Can you imagine if that happens? He could bring just as large a group as you did. It is good for you to have a positive attitude," Hand said.

"Oh yes. I have a positive attitude," Remi said, standing. "I am positive that I would like you to be on my team when I go back to Chandilar."

Hank was taken aback. "Remi, I am honored, truly, but I have patients! The X-Men need me here!"

"To do what? You know that the other Remi will have to repair their damage. Doctor Reyes can keep an eye on Renee. You were on the original team that Cody's dad led. I really want you at my side, Hank. Please consider it."

Hank thought for a moment. "Let me think about it," he said, finally.

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After learning where he was to sleep, Bryce O'Connor went outside. A couple of backyard porch lights were on. Everyone had been fed supper and the younger children were being put to bed.

Bryce had helped wash the dishes. He never had a lot of patience with little kids so doing the dishes was fine with him. He was lonely and very depressed. There was a hot tub that someone had turned on, but was currently empty. He saw a brick fire pit about twenty feet from the back door with a couple of metal benches around it. There was a little firewood by the back door.

Bryce took a couple of pieces of wood to the fire pit. He started a fire and sat on the bench to watch the flames. Bryce found fire to be soothing in the dark. He could zone out, think about nothing for awhile.

Over the next thirty minutes, a half dozen people joined him. No one said anything. Everyone was lost in their thoughts while they looked at the hypnotic flicker of the flame.

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On the front steps, Rachel sat looking at the stars. It was beautiful night with no moon visible and a thousand stars shining in the heavens. It was too bad, Rachel thought, that the lights in the building were on. The sky would be even more spectacular if they were not.

Lars came outside and sat next to her. Taking her hand, he said, "It seems so unreal."

"Yeah," Rachel said.

They sat there for awhile, neither saying anything.

"At the mansion, when we were served lunch, I saw you helping the kids. That was nice," Rachel said.

"Yeah well. You were with Joe and everyone else. I thought the little kids needed me. I'm glad that you aren't upset that I didn't come sit with you," Lars replied. Rachel squeezed his hand.

The door to the little girls' dorm opened and closed. Jean and Nightingale walked toward the main building. As they got close enough to be recognized, Lars felt Rachel stiffen.

"You get the girls all squared away?" Lars asked them as they approached the front steps.'

"I think so," Jean said. "Each girl has her own bed. We put up a divider to separate the little kids from the teenage girls. Paige and Jubilee agreed to help Ororo chaperon, the little kids as Gambit had figured along with a couple of older girls from your time. I guess that they expect nightmares. Scott and Bobby are making sure the boys are being taken care of in the other barn," Jean replied.

"Good," Lars answered. "If they need another chaperon, let me know,"

"Are you squared as to where you're sleeping?"Jean asked. Her body language was similar enough to Rachel's for Lars to know that she was making conversation. She could sense Rachel's mood.

"I'm sharing the attic with a few of the men."

Nightingale must have sensed Rachel's distress, "I'm not her, Rachel. Charlie told me about it and you were right to do what you did. I don't deserve to be blamed for her actions."

Rachel was quiet for a couple of seconds, before saying simply, "Fine."

Renee replied. "Fine what?"

"Fine. That means I know that you are not her. That doesn't mean that I want to be your friend, but you are right: you don't deserve to be blamed for her actions," Rachel said

Renee nodded. "Well, good night then," she said and went into the building.

Jean looked at Rachel and without a word, went into the house, leaving the couple to their thoughts.

After she went in, Lars said, "Well, that was awkward."

"I don't want to talk about it!" Rachel snapped, pulling her hand away.

"Oookay," Lars said.

She looked away for a minute before she said, "I'm sorry, Lars. It's not you. Renee really gets under my skin. In my head, I know that this other Renee is another person, but I'm having a hard time accepting it in my heart."

"What are you going to do about it?" Lars asked.

She sat for a couple of seconds. Rising, she said, "I'll be back," Rachel went into the house as Wolverine cane out.

"Evening Logan," Lars said.

"Your name is Lars, right?" Wolverine said in a distracted voice.

Lars nodded.

"Have you seen Jaysean? I've been looking for him." Wolverine asked.

Lars thought. "No, not since dinner. You suppose he went somewhere?"

"You know him better than I do, bub. What do you think?" Wolverine replied.

"He's close to his parents. He might have tried to go home." Lars said.

"Where's he from?" Wolverine asked.

"Jersey City,"

"Let's you and I go to the warehouse," Wolverine said.

As Lars got to his feet, Jaysean appeared on the lawn. Even in the darkness, Lars could tell the other man was distressed.

"Where have you been?" Wolverine demanded.

"Get out of my face Wolverine!" Jaysean replied. Before Wolverine could reply, Jaysean teleported.

"Great! Where did he go, now?"Wolverine fumed.

"He is in the back yard," Lars answered.

Wolverine looked at him.

"No I didn't use telepathy. When someone teleports around me, I can sense where they are going. That's how I could follow him to the van. Jaysean isn't stupid. Wherever he went, he was careful." Lars said.

"I hope so, bub," Wolverine replied.

"I'll see what's going on," Lars said rising. He thought that it would be a better idea to just walk around the house. Teleporting would be seen as confrontational. He found Jaysean sitting on the ground, in the dark, about a hundred yards from the firepit.

"You okay?" Lards asked.

"What kind of stupid question is that? No I am not okay. Nobody is okay here!" Jaysean replied.

Lars didn't say anything at first. Jaysean wasn't stupid. He knew what was on Lars' mind.

After three minutes Jaysean said, "I'm dead, Lars."

"What do you mean?" Lars replied. It was a strange statement, but Lars could feel the pain in the other man's voice. Jaysean was serious about what he was saying.

"The me that is supposed to exist should be a baby. My parents and my counterpart, me, were visiting relatives in New York when Onslaught attacked. They died in the carnage. I am dead and so are my parents." Jaysean said.

Lars looked at the other man. He didn't know what to say.

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Rachel found Renee sitting in a room that could be used as a den with Jean, Emma and a couple of women who had come through time. In the corner from the entrance, a television was on with the volume turned down, subtitles flowing at the bottom of the screen. The women were sitting on a sofa, a love seat and with individual matching chairs forming an L facing the television.

From what Rachel heard of the conversation, Jean, Emma and Renee were answering questions about current events which were grim. Rachel sat and watched an article on the civil war that was brewing in Genosha, followed by an article on the difficulties in getting New York City back on its feet after the Onslaught battle. Rachel had heard what Sam had said about Onslaught, but she didn't get the context. Gambit had barely touched on it.

Rachel decided to join the conversation. "Who was Onslaught? I have heard that name a couple of times today," she asked.

Renee added, "Yeah, what was that about? I saw the news when it was happening, but there was obviously a lot that wasn't reported, if Grandpa had a hand in that."

Jean and Emma shard a glance. "It's all tied into Gambit," Jean said. She spent the next twenty minutes hitting the highlights of Magneto's EM pulse, the Professor's mindwipe of Magneto, the rise and the fall of Onslaught and tied it into what Gambit had already said.

News articles kept flowing. Jean stopped talking. Rachel had studied mutant history. The stories she was seeing on television made her think that the world that she had come from could very easily happen here. She suddenly thought about her parents and she felt a wave of sorrow.

She glanced at Renee. She had a look of deep sympathy in her eyes. Rachel was caught unawares. This Renee was different. Her Renee would be in her own selfish little world. This older woman was clearly feeling for Rachel's distress.

At that point, Rachel realized, in her heart, that Nightengale was not her Renee. Rachel forced a smile towards the slightly older woman. Renee smiled back.

_Maybe this is someone I should get to know_, Rachel thought to herself ans the news played on.

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Gambit snapped awake. He was a light sleeper and something caught his attention. He reached out telepathically. Joe, Carrie and the kids were asleep. Mrs. Rhyne was crying in her bed. No surprise, she had lost her husband. Gambit glanced at the clock. Four a.m. Since he knew he wouldn't get back to sleep for a while, he strengthened his shield.

Lying in the hotel room, he heard the air conditioner come on. He liked the soft hum. It made him think about times that he had been on Shi'ar warships. He would be in his quarters, listening to the sounds of the ship. After a while, Mrs. Rhyne fell asleep. Remi let his mind go blank and he slept and he dreamed. _He was fifteen and he was in the Danger Room He and his friends were facing the Gamemaster. The time wave was coming! He opened his portal. Suddenly a burning skeletal hand grabbed him and Cody. It was Sylvia! She was saying, "Wait for us!"_

Gambit jerked awake, his heart beating furiously from the adrenaline rush. He sat in his bed for a minute. He had never had that particular nightmare before. He had finally maintained his shield so he didn't wake anyone. It was a little after six-thirty, so he got up, showered and put on some shades to hide his eyes and went to the lobby to get some breakfast.

The hotel had a continental breakfast bar. Gambit made a plate for himself and went and sat near a large screen television set to a news channel. He made sure there was a table between himself and the next occupant. There was some kind of riot going on in the Middle East that had all of the talking heads in a whirl. Nothing about the Shadow King, yet. Good.

As he finished eating, he was mildly surprised to see Mrs. Rhyne enter the lobby. Waving to her, she got a plate and joined him.

"This happened to you when you were fifteen, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Remi replied.

"Will it get better?" she asked looking down.

"It will never be the same, but it will get better," he replied.

After a minute, she asked, "So what now?"

"We build an army and stop the Shadow King before he kills ninety percent of the human race," Gambit said simply.

"Ninety percent of the human race? Isn't that a little melodramatic?" she asked.

"You were there. What did you pick up?" Remi asked.

"It was at night and I'll admit, I only saw some distant fires in the city. There was no electricity that I could see. I am not that strong of a telepath, anyway. My range isn't much larger than this building."

"What about the telepathic assault?" Gambit asked.

Mrs. Rhyne shuddered. For the second or so that it took the strong telepaths to shield her, the overwhelming weight of the telepathic attack, and there was no other word for it, had driven her to the ground. She wasn't exactly sure who had helped her to her feet and got her to the twin portals.

Gambit didn't press the issue. "Have you ever considered what would happen to your world if you no longer could rely on electricity?" he asked.  
"Our world? Oh, I guess you are from another planet, aren't you? I can't believe I just said that." Mrs. Rhyne became thoughtful. "There was a television show about that very thing."

" What did this program say?"

"It was fiction, but the premise was that everyone who stayed in major cities died in short order," she said.

"One difference between that program and what we are dealing with is that Earth governments got a taste of this about six months ago. Magneto blasted the whole planet with an EM pulse. The world is still picking itself up. That is why part of this town is still blacked out and why dinner was so expensive last night. When Erik pulled his little stunt, it shut down hydroelectric dams. Nuclear power plants went on emergency lockdown. Every hospital lost access to its technology. Thousands died in hospitals worldwide who would have survived. Many hospitals are still closed as are many power plants. Food and oil supplies have been disrupted, although with so many of modern cars' electrical systems ruined, that isn't as bad as it could be." Remi said.

"There are still a lot of places worldwide, that have been pushed back to pre electronic technology. Many are hungry and thirsty. Without power, sewage removal and processing is a big problem. The United States has pretty much gotten the sewage problem straightened out for the moment but for a while there were cases of diphtheria beginning to show. Now imagine third world countries. There is a lot of suffering that is going on.

The Shadow King has Magneto's mutant ability. He is a psychotic empath that who gets high on other people's misery. He tried to steal Monet St. Croix to begin building relays to take over the world. When he feels he is strong enough to resist retaliation. He will certainly do another EM pulse and while things are all in chaos, he will add relays and extend his power base," Remi added.

"The world will be without power," Mrs. Rhyne realized, a look of horror beginning to sit in her eyes.

"The big governments, the ones with resources, are planning for another Pulse. They are preparing their bases, securing resources, developing defenses as best they can. That raid we pulled yesterday, tells me that America is far from ready to deal with the Shadow King. We shouldn't have been able to be that successful, so easily. I'm hoping that the other major countries are more prepared. We'll see."

He continued, "After the Shadow King attacks, for a long time, the average person on the street is going to be left to their own resources to survive. No medicine, little food or fresh water and all of the time, an empath getting high on the misery of everyone. If we fail, the Shadow King will eventually die, but it would be at least a century before Earth would be fully recovered." Remi took a drink of coffee as Mrs. Rhyne collected her thoughts.

"You are going to kill a man," she said.

"Yes,"

"You don't think this is murder? He hasn't done the things you say he will. You can't kill someone for what you believe he will do."

Remi looked at the woman. She was about ten years older than himself. He appreciated her integrity. "He has killed in this timeline." Gambit said. "He telepathically enslaved my Renee and used her as an assassin. He killed a ship full of Shi'ar military personnel, for no good reason just a few days ago. As the Crown Prince of the Shi'ar Empire, I intend to bring justice for all of those he has killed."

"Justice or revenge,: Mrs. Rhyne pressed.

"Assuming I could take him alive, which is a big assumption, what court should I present him to? New York State? The United States? A Shi'ar Court? No, this is not a court action. This is a war."

"One minute you say it's justice and the next moment it is a war. You may be a galactic prince and you may be an Omega class mutant, but you need to remember that Sam is right. You are not a god. You may kill this Shadow King, but you will pay for it."

Remi sat there for a moment before he said softly. "I know that. I have had to kill before."

She looked at her plate and after a brief pause, said, "I can't do that."

"I know, but I want you to stay. You will be safer with us than alone," Remi said.

She looked away for a second before saying, "I really don't have anywhere to go," she said. "The me in this time is thirteen. What would I say to my parents?"

Remi thought back to the day two different days that he spoke with his father and the two different responses that he got. "When I did it with this version of my father, I just dumped it on him telepathically." He sent a quick glimpse of that memory.

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

They both stopped as a tentative probe touched their senses.

"I think a little boy is up," Mrs. Rhyne said glad for an excuse to change the subject. _Alan, is that you?_

_ Yes Ma'am, _the seven year old answered. _Everybody's still asleep when I woke up, so I probed your rooms to see if you were awake and you had both left, so I wondered where you were._

After being assured that he could dress himself, Alan was told to join them for breakfast.

"Boy's lost his parents already, hasn't he," Remi asked.

"How'd you know?" Mrs. Rhyne asked surprised.

"I saw kids like him on the streets of New Orleans when I was a..." He stopped. He hadn't seen those kids. Gambit had. Cody's father had. Even though he knew the memories were of another Gambit they still felt real. He shook his head.

Alan joined them. Mrs. Rhyne helped him get a plate of food and insisted that he take some fruit with his eggs and bacon, despite Alan's protests. A family came down and after getting their own food, sat at the table next to the mutants. The children stared at Gambit's sunglasses until their mother told them to eat their breakfast.

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The Rush! He couldn't believe it. Turning Nathan Essex into a relay boosted his telepathic power more than he could have possibly imagined! Essex was now a perfect slave; augmenting the Shadow King's abilities. The information from his mind was everything the Shadow King had hoped.

The Shadow King now knew who to recruit next. With his enhanced strength, he could now start sensing hundreds of telepaths. Some would make Hounds and a few would be excellent relays. With Essex to help him reprogram people, he could begin his conquest of the world. He now knew who the next relay should be.

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"You all right, Sugah?"

Young Renee put her forearm over her eyes as she started to wake up to the smell of bacon cooking. "Mama, I had the worst nightmare. I dreamed that we went through time and..." Her eyes jerked open and Renee tried to sit up quickly, only to lose her balance and fall back to bed as her memories rushed back. The look of disappointment and despair on Renee's face broke Rogue's heart as Renee closed her eyes.

"Ah know Ah'm not the momma you grew up with Renee, but at one time, she and Ah were the same person. Ah know and so do you, that she wouldn't want you to be alone. Ahm here for you because Ah wanna be. That's all Ah have to say," Rogue said.

Renee started to sob softly. Rogue took her hand. The dam broke and Renee began to bawl. After about ten minutes, with her eyes still closed, Renee said." I'm pregnant, Mama."

"You're what?" Cody thundered. He and Charlie had approached unnoticed.

"Cody!" Rogue snapped in a disapproving tone.

"Who's the father!" Cody demanded as Beast came into the medlab drawn by Cody's outburst.

"Cody, this can wait!"Rogue snapped angrily.

"Cody, it was Boris," Charlie said. "Didn't you know that they were an item?"

"Get out of my medlab," Beast thundered.

Cody looked like he wanted to lay into Renee some more but Rogue and Hank had positioned themselves between the twins. Cody,with a look of fury on his face, turned opened a portal which knocked Charlie to the ground and Cody stormed out. The portal's closing seemed to echo its owner's mood.

Cursing under his breath Charlie got to his feet as Hank took some readings of Renee.

"You okay, Charlie?" Rogue asked concerned.

"Oh yeah. I am so gonna kick his butt." Charlie said darkly.

"He'll calm down," Rogue said turning her attention to Renee. The girl had drawn into herself.

"I don't care if he calms down! Cody opened his portal without a single thought as to who could be hurt. It's like a flatscan who shoots a gun without any concern where the bullet is going to go!" Charlie railed.

"Calm down or leave!" Hank thundered.

"Charlie, go get a plate for ya sister. It will give you a couple of minutes t' calm down," Rogue said.

Charlie sigh and said, "Yes Ma'am." As he left the medlab, Charlie glance at the four comatose patients, their life signs being picked up by the monitors over their corpse like bodies.

The one chaperoning father, a Eurasian named Dimitri, had been one of the cooks at the school in Kyrgyzstan. He had taken over the primary cooking duties in the farm kitchen. There was an island in the middle of the room where Dimitri had placed bacon, oatmeal and sliced cantaloupe with appropriate crockery and utensils.

"Everything okay?" Dimitri asked in Russian.

"Cody is an irresponsible jerk," Charlie answered in the same language. Having spent most of his life in Kyrgyzstan, Charlie and most of the children could speak both Russian and Kirghiz fluently. In addition, when he had been eleven he had been allowed to use the Shi'ar language learning software to be taught Shi'ar.

He made up a plate and, mindful of taking some silverware, returned to the medlab. Renee was sitting up, looking haggard and vulnerable. Rogue looked at him with that look he had come to know as the _You better watch what you say or else!_

He placed the food on a counter as Hank glanced over to Charlie and said, "Go and get Renee a glass of milk and one of orange juice, please." and totally forgot the boy.

Charlie went to the door. As he exited the medlab, he looked back and said, "For what it's worth, I always liked Boris."

When he returned with the drinks, he got the shock of his life, Renee smiled at him.

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The dining room in the farmhouse was bigger than most. The table seated fourteen. Even with the small room off the kitchen that had a table which seated another six, dining arrangements were tight. Feeding everyone last night was a chore that would obviously be repeated at every meal.

Charlie walked into the dining room, a plate for himself in hand. At one end of the table sat the Professor with Younger Remi, Ji'an, Armando and Wolfgang. At the other end sat Scott, Jean, Dimitri, Betsy and Mrs. Benitez. Everyone had been allowed to sleep in. So far only one little boy named Marcus had roused and came looking for food. He sat between the two groups. Charlie decided to join him.

"Is everything all right with Renee?" Professor Xavier asked. The others looked to see Charlie's response.

Suddenly self conscious, Charlie swallowed some juice before answering. "I think so. She said something and Cody got all mad and left." Part of him wanted to rage against Cody, but he wasn't comfortable with public speaking and all of the adults at the table staring at him made Charlie a little nervous.

"That doesn't sound like him. He is usually very level headed," Mrs. Benitez said.

Charlie put a spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth to avoid answering her. Xavier stared at him for a couple of seconds before turning back to his discussion with young Remi about the upcoming campaign as Banshee and Monet walked into the dining room with each holding their breakfast plates and they took a seat.

"Has anyone seen the Older Renee this morning?" Charlie asked.

"She was headed for the shower, when I came downstairs," Psylocke said.

"Oh. What are we going to do today?" Charlie asked.

"Several things;" Psylocke answered. "One: we have to prepare a military strategy to defeat the Shadow King. Two: we have to figure how we will provide for everyone. Three: we going to have to figure what we will do regarding Apocalypse. Four: Connect with the other teams and then figure out what we have not thought of."

"Wow," Charlie said. The Psylocke he had known had always been pragmatic. Nice to see some things were still the same.

"Ve must git more food," Dimitri said in his broken English. Switching to Russian he said, "There are no fresh vegetables, meat or milk. Everything in storage was in cans. We have a well. That is good. If Lars hadn't gone into New York for the bacon and cantaloupe, all we would have would be oatmeal for breakfast. If one of you boys would translate, please."

"That falls under Category Two," Psylocke said after Charlie did as he was asked.

"We will go to the store this morning," Jean said.

"Can I go?" Marcus asked hopefully.

It never ceased to amaze Jean how the mind of a child worked. His world was turned upside down yesterday, and Marcus still considered it a treat to go to the store. She smiled at the boy, knowing that the simple pleasures needed to be treasured.

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"Good thing that we left when we did," Adult Chamber said. Cable and Bishop both nodded. In addition to guarding the equipment and supplies from the mansion, they had set up the relay to the cloaked Shi'ar satellite in orbit. They had watched the SWAT team descend on the mansion. They also recorded where the SWAT team went afterwards. The team went to a remote location in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

As he took a sip of coffee, Bishop said, "The fact that we haven't been seen on public service announcement calling for our arrests tells me that whoever is calling the shots is not doing this through legal channels. On one side that is good: there is no arrest warrant for any of us."

"Oh, it is definitely a black ops outfit. When I scanned the general, he was of the opinion that someone on the Joint Chiefs or DOD was calling the shots. The President and Congress might not even know about this," Cable said.

"So tell me," Chamber said looking away from the telemetry. "What happened to the Professor and who was Onslaught?" After Cable and Bishop spent the next half hour answering the question, Chamber just shook his head. "So Remi is going to take a broken man with him for his greatest battle. I hope that kid knows what he is doing."

Neither Bishop nor Cable said anything. They had the same reservations.

"Wish they would get up," Cable said. "I need to check in on my mother,"

"I thought that Jean was your mother," Bishop said.

"No. My mother is actually a clone of Jean's." Cable replied.

"A clone, as in a clone with Jean's abilities?" Chamber said.

"Long story, but yes," Cable said.

"You're right. We'll have to move on this as soon as our transportation gets up. Do you know where she is?" Chamber asked. A clone of Jean would be a powerful relay. "Where is she?"

"The last I heard, she was living in Oakland," Cable said. There were only a handful of cities in the world that had recognized mutant neighborhoods. Oakland was one of them. Most mutants there had limited powers and had obvious physical mutations. It was definitely a poor man's neighborhood in an already bankrupt city.

"My mother isn't much for listening to anyone. She thinks that Scott was using her as a replacement for Jean. When Jean returned, Madelyn felt used. Truth is, she was right. Scott did use her. She hates the X-Men." Cable said.

"Well she better get over it. Shadow King will go for her as soon as he finds out about her.," Chamber said.

Cable didn't respond. Where were the teleporters? The X-Men had forgotten to give him a phone number. Short of sending out a telepathic call. He had no way to contact them other than to leave a message on the Shi'ar satellite, for then to retrieve when they got around to it, which he had done.

His commlink beeped. Someone was in range. Cable nodded approvingly. X-Force was at a nearby New Jersey airport. Now where were those teleporters?


	7. Chapter 7

"So you let your mother live in Oakland," Jaysean said it as a statement, his disapproval apparent. Mutant neighborhoods as a general rule were usually in the poorest side of town and Oakland was no exception. Mutants who looked normal, could generally hide their abilities and live reasonably normal lives. Oakland's mutant neighborhood was similar to the Morlock Tunnels in that everyone was poor, most were deformed or disfigured and some had powers while others didn't.

Cable and Jaysean stood in front of a decrepit looking bar. Every building on the block could use a paint job. Half of the buildings were closed and were obviously abandoned, Across the street, thee homeless men were sitting on a small bench in a doorway of an empty building. The door was clearly jimmied. No telling how many people were living there.

It was a cloudy day, Jaysean was kicking himself for not checking the weather before teleporting Cable to Oakland. There was a cold breeze coming off San Francisco Bay. The heavens looked like they could open up at any time and Jaysean was freezing.

"Last time we spoke, she said that she was working here," Cable said.

"You would think an alpha telepath could find a better job," Jaysean said.

"My mother's bitterness clouds her decisions. Last time we spoke she was talking about how great her boyfriend is compared to Scott and how she got to see Venom take down a drug dealer..." Cable stopped speaking. He drew his weapon as Jaysean snapped his telekinetic shield over them and reached out a telepathic tendril to Cable who quickly linked.

The Shadow King! He was there! He had done an effective job of staying hidden, waiting to spring his trap. Neither Jaysean nor Cable has sensed him as they approached the bar. With the element of surprise gone, the Shadow King launched a full telepathic and empathic assault on the two men. The door ripped off its hinges and slammed into Jaysean's shield.

He wasn't alone, Jaysean realized. As the Shadow King stepped out of the bar, in his Eric the Red disguise, Jaysean could sense that the Shadow King was linked to two alphas, who were both in the bar. The people across the street were screaming in despair from the overwhelming mental assault.

Jaysean had been in battles before, but nothing like this! It took every ounce of willpower to maintain his shield. The link with Cable collapsed. Jaysean found himself under the Shadow King's full assault combined with his relays. Jaysean jumped. He couldn't take Cable with him.

Jaysean landed on his back at the warehouse,. Staggering to his feet, the telepathic silence deafening, he called out, "It was a trap! Shadow King has Cable!"

"What?" Bishop sad.

Jaysean showed Bishop, Adult Chamber, Roberto Da Costa aka Sunspot and Nate Grey his memories of the encounter. Grey had been spending time with X Force. He and Sunspot had offered to stand guard duty while Cable went looking for his mother.

"I have fought some bad boys since I joined the Xavier School, but this guy, I don't know how we can stop this guy." The young man's confidence had been seriously rattled.

Chamber walked up to Jaysean. "Stay with me Miller. We need you to focus. Start teleporting all of this stuff to the other base, now."

Jaysean nodded his head. He had been in the battle for what, five seconds? For the first time in a long time, Jaysean was scared.

"Miller!" Chamber yelled and smacked at Jaysean telepathically. Though Jaysean was significantly stronger than Chamber, his shield was at a low ebb and Jono's telepathic slap actually hurt.

"Okay! Okay," Jaysean said. He focused and took his first load, Joe and Gambit were looking for a base to work out of in Joplin and Lars and Wolverine were doing the same in Colfax Washington and Ned had gone grocery shopping with Dimitri so Jaysean teleported all of the equipment as fast as he could onto the back lawn of the farmhouse, a little beyond the firepit. He was starting to get tired when he brought the last load in along with the mutants who had been guarding the equipment.

Everyone had come out back to see what was going on. Jean stalked up to Jaysean and said, tersely, "What happened?"

In Jaysean's time, he had never met Cable. He had heard of him, but Cable had died in some battle or other when Jaysean was a kid. He had, though, known the older Jean along with Nate Grey. He had known that there was some kind of relationship between Cable, Nate and Jean. He had assumed that Cable was Nate's father and that Jean was somehow related to them. Jaysean had never bothered to ask.

Looking at Jean's body language, it was obvious that she was going to be angry and hurt about what happened. Jaysean stood up straight. His father always had told him that was the best way to give bad news. "It was a trap. Shadow King was there with two relays. They blitzed us. I barely got away." Jaysean looked away for a second. "I tried...I tried to bring us both, but that pressure both kinds, telepathic and empathic, I barely could get out, myself. I think his link augmented his empathic abilities as well as the telepathic ones."

"So, you left him there!" Jean said, accusingly and to Jaysean's ears, very loudly. Everyone was staring at him.

In his preparations, Gambit had purchased several picnic benches with accompanying gazebos complete with netting to keep bugs out. They had been set up that day out front and most of the younger children were in that part of the property, playing before dinner, oblivious to what was going on in the back.

Everyone else, well, they knew what he had done. He wanted to find a hole and pull it in after him. Whatever else Jean was going to say was interrupted by a beeping noise from a Shi'ar communication console.

Banshee walked over and turned on the receiver. To everyone's surprise, the voice that came through was Cable's "X-Men, This is Cable. Please respond."

The reactions of the X-Men were immediate."Gather the children. We may have to move quickly." Banshee said.

As people began to move, Sunspot pointed to the console. "What about that?"

Banshee thought for a second. "Emmett, sync with Jaysean here. Teleport the machine far away. Be ready to leave in an instant. This is probably a trap."

"I'm going with him," Young Remi said and walked next to the machine.

"No, you are not going, Rem'aillon" the Professor said. It would have been comedic in another time; the classic teenager wanting to do something that his parent not wanting him to do.

"Aban, the other Remi is not here and this is going to require an omega. If I can have Jaysean, Psylocke and maybe Jean, I am sure I can handle just two relays," Young Remi said.

"Boy needs a little blooding," Sean said.

"Jean should not go. I'll go," Adult Chamber said.

"Are you kidding? Of course, I am going!" Jean shouted.

"We know that one of the relays is Madelyn Pryor. You saw what happened when I touched my younger self on the astral plane. What will happen when you and she do the same thing?" Chamber replied.

Jean wanted to say something, but she was interrupted by the Professor, who said; "He is right Jean. Chamber leads the mission. Is that understood, Remi?"

"Yes, Aban," Remi replied. "Are you willing to take a chance, Psylocke?" Remi asked.

"Let's do it," she said.

"Wait!" Nightengale cane up and touched Jaysean's arm. He suddenly felt invigorated. "You will be starving tomorrow, but you need to be at your best, now."

Jaysean thought a moment and teleported the group along with the console to the lawn in front of the mansion.

Chamber looked at the mansion and nodded his head. "Link up," he said. As soon as everyone was linked, he pressed the transmitter. ."Cable, Jono Senior. Why aren't you a relay, mate?"

"Because when he was attacking me, I totally lost control of the techno organic virus. When I started to change, he ran. I could tell that he was really afraid that he would become infected. He took Mom and Sinister with him. That's his other relay. I couldn't stop the change," Cable said.

"Explain change," Jono said

"Tell Betsy that she doesn't have to ever worry about becoming the Guardian of San Francisco," Cable replied. "because I am."

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A few years ago, on Star Trek, Captain Picard was taken prisoner by the Borg. He was turned in to one of them before the Enterprise crew rescued him and reversed the process. At the end of the show, Picard was captain of the Enterprise, as if nothing ever happened.

General Gerard Donovan had seen the episode that night and as soon as the credits began, he turned to his then, teenage daughter and said, "No way! If that were real, Picard would spend the rest of his career behind a desk. He was compromised and no one in a position of authority would trust someone who had been compromised like that with command of a starship. His career would be over."

_Just like my career is over, _Donovan thought. After the mutant attack on what remained of Project Grayscape yesterday, he knew that his time was coming soon. Everyone who had known about the project had their memories about it excised. Enough had been left for them not to wonder what had happened. Whoever the telepath had been wanted them to know what was taken, but the mechanics of the device, the tests, the results, everything else was gone.

He was surprised that he had been called to Oakland. It had only been yesterday since the attack in New York State. Word had not spread to treat him like a pariah, at least not yet. A driver met him at the airport. The other passengers on his flight were being greeted by their loved ones in a way that reminded Donovan of times where he had travelled for funerals. Everyone in the airport had an edginess to them. He found his driver and as the two men made their way to the car. Donovan caught a headline on a television. "Mass suicides hit Oakland!"

It took them forty-five minutes to make it to their destination. They must have passed at least a hundred auto accidents, some with bodies still in the cars. The heavens had opened and the sounds of sirens were muffled by the rain drops against the windshield with the wipers trying to keep up with the deluge.

They came to a street that had been barricaded with a Police Line Do Not Cross tap hastily run from a stop sign to a post across the street. Despite the bad weather, Donovan was surprised that there was no civilians standing behind the line, observing. On the cordoned off block, there were a half a dozen covered bodies on the street. General Donovan glanced to the non cordoned off side and was somewhat surprised to see even more bodies on the sidewalk. Why was only one block cordoned off?

He showed his ID. "Who's in charge here," he said.

A policeman directed him to a lanky man with a jacket label FBI. His was a youngish Asian man around thirty who was clearly frightened. "What are we facing?" Donovan asked.

"Who are you?" the agent asked.

"Army Intelligence. I was told that we might need to work together on this, but I wasn't told what this was. What happened here?"

"Identification, please." the agent replied.

General Donovan handed his ID to the younger man. He handed it back and said, "A little after 11:30 this morning, a large section of Oakland felt this overwhelming and I mean overwhelming sense of despair. At the same time, everyone was feeling a tremendous pressure in our heads. It felt like they were going to explode. This lasted for thirteen seconds. Everyone who was driving was involved in an automobile accident. Hundreds of people in upper story windows jumped to their deaths. "

"We discovered that not everyone in Oakland was affected. It reached out from a wedge. We think that the source is there," he said, pointing to the bar.

"Everyone in a three block radius is dead, except him," the agent pointed to a man sitting in a police car. "When we arrived, we found him by the bar where we think this began."

"Why is everyone staring at the bar?" Donovan asked?.

The agent hesitated. "You have to see it to believe it," he replied.

Donovan started towards the bar. Looking into the shattered doorway, he saw what looked like some kind of metal wall with a couple of pipes running horizontally at the top of the doorway. As he entered the bar, he stopped. Inside the bar was an enormous machine! The machine had broken a hole in the roof of the bar. The entire front of the bar left to right, top to bottom was part of this machine. One of the bar's 70 watt ceiling lights was still working, so Donovan could see some of the machine.

His blood froze when he saw a metal face of a man slightly off to the right.

_Good afternoon General Donovan, _a telepathic voice spoke in his head.

General Donovan jumped. "Was that you?" he said, pointing to the face.

_Yes. _the disembodied voice answered. _You know me as Cable._

"What happened to you?" Donovan asked. That's all he needed, to have the X-Men show up powers blasting. He shuddered as he thought of how little firepower he had at his disposal.

_The X-Men aren't going to show up shooting anything! Yes I can read your thought as well as all of the thought of your men at the same time. What caused this disaster is courtesy of Eric the Red. He tried to kidnap me using his ability to generate emotion matched with his telepathic abilities. The only reason that he failed is that when I started to turn into this, he was afraid that this would happen to him, so he literally cut his losses, took his associates and ran away. _Cable said.

"Eric the Red ran?" Donovan said dubiously.

"What actually happened to you?" the agent asked softly.

Donovan wished he could order the man away. This would be the most top secret thing in America. He was already imagining how to transport Cable to a secure site.

His thoughts were interrupted by Cable. _I don't think so._

Flustered, Donovan said, "You don't have any say in the matter."

_Before you try to move me against my will, there are a few facts you need to consider, _Cable began. _My telepathic abilities has been augmented to a tremendous level. I have very powerful friends who will not leave me behind. The most important variable to consider, is that as this war develops, I will be a major factor in the defense of the San Francisco area, to prevent another killing like today from occurring._

"What are you?" the agent asked.

_I used to be a man. A long time ago, an enemy injected me with a techno organic virus. I have been holding it at bay for years. When Eric the Red attacked me, my defences went down and the virus ran its course. I am still partly organic, but I am almost dead. I will stay in this physical state until I finally die. My telepathy has been augmented in both strength and the processing ability to keep track of hundreds of conversations at the same time and you are right. It will not be much of a life, but there is nothing I can do about it._

"Are you in contact with the X-Men?" General Donovan asked.

_I can get a message to them when I need to, _Cable replied cagily.

"What are they planning?" Donovan asked. To which Cable suddenly stopped talking.

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After twenty minutes, General Donovan and the agent returned to the rain drenched street. If Cable didn't want to answer something, then he wasn't going to be forced. Donovan looked at the survivor. He wanted to hear what the other man had to say.

They went to the police car where a policeman opened the car door. Not surprisingly, the survivor was a mutant. If Donovan was to guess, he would say the man looked to be around twenty-five. He was a small man at about five foot five and around a hundred and forty with medium gray skin and wavy, full gray hair, a couple of shades darker than his skin. The man was wearing a worn out team jacket from one of the Bay Area colleges. He had on worn jeans and scuffed up boots.

"Is this going to take very long? I have to be at work in a couple of hours. It is kind of hard for mutants like me to find work so I don't want to be fired." the man said.

"How would you like a civil service job? Full benefits.," Donovan asked.

The younger man's eyes narrowed. "I would love one. What's the catch?"

"You are right, There is a catch," General Donovan answered. "First of all, what is your name?"

"Pedro Khalid," the mutant replied.

"Pedro Khalid," the General repeated.

"My mom is Mexican and my Dad is Arab, but I was born and raised in the Bay Area," the mutant said.

"Since you are a citizen, I can arrange for you to have a full time civilian employee job for the Army with benefits. What I am going to need is for you to be willing to undergo a lot of medical tests to learn why you survived something that killed everyone around you. After we are finished, I will find something that you can do for a long term job that you will like doing. Do we have a deal?" _That is what we should have done with those telepaths, _Donovan thought bitterly.

Khalid thought for a second. "Yeah," he said. He got out of the car and offered his hand to General Donovan. "We have a deal."

General Donovan took his hand and smiled. Al least, dealing with this mutant, his conscience was clear. He was sure that he could arrange a job for the man. Back to business.

"What happened here? Tell me with as much detail as you can," General Donovan.

"I was over there by the red building," he pointed down the block three buildings down, across the street from the bar. "I was coming this way, when bam! It felt like I suddenly had a huge sinus headache. I stop. I am shaking my head, trying not to squint. I do that when I get sinus headaches." "Anyway, the door to the bar just blows off its hinges, so I look over here. This guy floats out of the building. He looked like he had just come from a science fiction convention. He has a red helmet, with a red outfit and a purple cape. He is interested in these two men on the ground. One is a Black guy, around my age. The other was a much older White guy. He had white hair. I got the impression that they were both over six foot. Anyway, the costume guy stops suddenly, like he hit something. A second or two later, the Black guy teleports away. Costume guy picks up the older guy with some kind of telekinetic ability. He turns and drifts towards the doorway. That is when I notice that a red head woman was standing in the doorway. She had a lot of hair. The three went inside. A couple of seconds later, I hear screaming coming from inside the bar and a whole bunch of weird sounds. Then bang! The sinus headache is gone, but the screaming keeps on happening for, I don't know ten or twenty seconds. The weird sounds stop about a minute later."

"I wasn't sure what to do next. I didn't think that the cops would be able to take that guy. Then I noticed that Benji and Dre were on the ground," Khalid's voice got more somber as he pointed to two bodies outside the jimmied building. "I knew those guys, so I went to check on them. No pulse. I checked some of the people inside. Everyone was dead. There were some blankets inside the building that were donated by a Baptist mission. I picked them up and used them on the bodies on the street. After a bit, I had to know what was happening in the bar. I got as close as I could without being seen from the inside. I was about to look in when a cop car came by. The cops thought I was suspicious looking, so they threw me in the car. Then the cops went into the bar and called for backup. That's it."

` "Red Costume isn't there any more, is he?" Khalid asked.

"No, he left and took the woman with him," General Donovan said.

"Too bad for her," Khalid replied.

Since he didn't want Khalid to ask about Cable, General Donovan changed the subject. "How strong is your telepathy?"

"Telepathy? I wish! I'm no telepath." Khalid replied. "I don't have any powers or abilities."

"You have one," the agent said. "You have the ability to survive the monster that made this mess."


	8. Chapter 8

"Cody, Can I have a word with you in private?" Xavier asked Cody when the boy entered the farmhouse.

Gone was the angry young man who had stormed out that morning. In his place was a sixteen year old kid, who was expecting a chewing out. His demeanor was reserved. His shoulders were a little hunched as he followed the older man into the room.

When Gambit had first gotten the farm, he renovated more than just the barns. He had taken several large rooms and had partitioned them into bedrooms. Xavier directed Cody into one such bedroom that led off the living room. It was across the hall from the tv lounge. Xavier's room had a bed and, a small cabinet to use as a closet, a mirror on the wall, a small bench that Xavier would never sit on and enough room to turn his hover chair around.

Xavier indicated that Cody should sit on the bench, as Xavier closed the door.

"I suppose that you are not happy about this morning," Cody said.

"No, I am not," Xavier replied.

"Chamber, my Chamber, already read me the riot act about endangering everyone here," Cody said.

"The only reason that the satellites orbiting Earth didn't detect your little tantrum is that your grandmother's satellite is masking our presence here from anything in orbit," Xavier said solemnly.

"Yeah, it is kind of hard to beat electronics that is at least three hundred years more advanced," Cody replied, a touch of a smile on his face.

"It doesn't mean that they can't find us another way. Where did you go when you left?" Xavier asked.

"I went to a lake I liked to go to, not too far from Biskek." Cody said. "I stayed there until it got dark. The time zone is ten hours ahead of here. I don't think anyone saw me gate in. At least no one reacted. There were some people fishing so I visited with them. They thought I was a Russian, but since I spoke Kirghiz to them, they thought I was all right. Someone gave me some food. When it got dark, everyone started to leave, so I gated to the mansion. I was there when the team showed up, with the transceiver. After Chamber reamed me, Jaysean teleported the transceiver back to the warehouse and then we came here." Cody answered.

"I see," Xavier said. _How do I be a parent to this boy? _Xavier thought to himself. _I don't even know him! He is out of control, but I am pretty sure he'll listen if I can figure out what to say!_ Cody was squirming, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I never thought I would meet you," Xavier said.

Whatever Cody was expecting, that wasn't it. He looked confused. Where was this going?

"I knew of your existence, or should I say, your counterpart's existence, when Remi came to me thirteen years ago. I mean the older Remi." Xavier said.

"Grandpa, it might be easier if we start calling them Remi Senior and Remi Junior. Renee Senior and Junior, etc, That's what Jono said when he was talking to Cable. That is when I walked up on them.," Cody said.

"Not a bad idea,"Xavier said. After a moment's uncomfortable silence, he continued. "After your father, died, I would assume that my counterpart was very influential in your upbringing?"

"Sure. You and Magneto," Cody replied.

"I can't believe that Erik and I would raise you to disown your sister for getting pregnant," Xavier said.

"I'm not disowning her!" Cody said, indignantly.

"Then why are you acting like this?" Xavier asked, calmly.

"Because.." Cody stopped, bent forward and ran his hands through his hair, "You don't understand."

"You're right, I don't understand. So, explain it to me and we can work this out. You do want this to be straightened out, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Cody got up and sat at the foot of his grandfather's bed with his back was against the wall and his legs crossed like a little boy would do. "The pregnancy is just a part of it all. I guess you would call it the cherry on top of a really ugly sundae built on a lot of bitterness."

Cody shook his head, thinking of bad times. "When Daddy died, everything changed for the worse. No surprise there. Grandma stayed for a couple of weeks. I remember that she took me up to the ship and gave me a tour. That was my first happy thing that happened after Daddy died. I started to, I guess, start to accept it when Charlie appeared with a note saying who he is, Renee couldn't handle it. She started to fight with everyone. Momma remarried. It got worse and then the girls were born and it got even worse."

"It was obvious that Momma and Poppa married too soon. Renee alienated everyone except Storm, well, I guess Boris, too. She hated the fact that I respected Magneto enough to call him Poppa. I would never call him Daddy, out of respect, but I have spent the last ten years on edge with her. It all came out this morning." Cody said and put his chin in his hands.

"If she is willing to change, would you be willing to bury the hatchet?" his grandfather asked.

"Sure, but I have a hard time seeing that happening," Cody said.

"Pregnancies can change people's perspectives. What if I told you Charlie and Renee have been inseparable, pretty much all day?"

"No way! You ARE kidding!," Cody said, shaking his head.

"I am quite serious. By the way, he is upset with you about accidentally knocking him down with your vortex when you left," Charles reached out to open his door.

Cody's cheeks turned pink with embarrassment. "He will not be happy with me."

"Well, why don't we go and see if we can work out some long overdue peace in this family?"

"Okay, Grandpa," Cody said, getting to his feet.

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Reconciliation between the twins went pretty well. Except for a mild tirade from Charlie about Cody's recklessness, to which Cody admitted that Charlie was right, the three of them started to get along. Xavier was glad to see that Renee Senior and Rogue were there to be part of the group.

The good mode froze when Gambit and Joe walked in. Seeing Rogue's negative, non verbal cues, Remi turned to Hank, and ignoring everyone else, asked which of the comatose telepaths was in the worst shape.

Hank, picking up on the pain that the former lovers were feeling, went over to the four comatose patients, three women and one man. He pointed to a woman a redhead who looked to be about thirty.

"We'll take her to Joplin and I'll work on her mind, there,"Remi said.

"No," Jono Sr. said as he walked in the room. "We don't have the time."

"These people are slowly dying!" Hank shouted.

"How many people died, today in Oakland? What happened to Cable shows that we have to start recruiting, tonight. We can't wait until tomorrow!." Chamber Sr. shouted back.

"Are you saying that we should let these people die, because we don't have the TIME to save them?" Hank yelled.

"Yes," Jono Sr. replied.

The bluntness stunned Hank. It mildly surprised Gambit. In the tight quarters, the argument brought the attention of most adults and teenagers. A growing group stood at the doorway

Scott called out from the back of the pack, in a clipped voice, " Chamber is partly right. We go to war, tonight. Council of war at the dinner table in forty-five minutes. All of the children should be fed by then. If you haven't eaten, do so." He turned and walked away.

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It was 6:30, a little late for dinner, but not too bad, Carrie Bailey thought. They had a good day hunting prospective real estate for a base of operations. Remi had rented a station wagon. While Remi and Joe made contact with the local real estate agents and accessed their listings, Carrie and Beverly had kept the boys occupied. After lunch, everyone went and looked at a few properties together.

Carrie could see that the real estate agent was counting the commission that she would receive. They found two properties that they wanted. One was a three story house built in the early 1900s that looked like it could house maybe twenty people. That was in town. On the outskirts they found a house with a barn on three acres for rent. They went back to the office, where Remi implanted the idea in the agents mind that she had already run the financial background checks. Remi had transferred the funds to pay the rent for three months in advance and they had the place.

Remi wanted to wait on the mini mansion. It was for sale, not rent and Remi wanted to see what he would have to spend in the other dead zones.

Remi and Joe had teleported back to the farm house in Ohio in order to compare notes with the others. Joe had offered to take the women and the boys back, but the boys begged to stay and swim in the hotel pool, so some swimsuits were bought before Joe and Remi left.

After an hour and a half in the pool, the children were worn out. As they passed through the lobby, the women noticed that the big screen in the sitting room where they had breakfasted, was showing the disaster in Oakland.

When they arrived in their rooms, Carrie set up her tablet with a favored cartoon that would last about an hour. Telling the boys to put on dry clothes, Carried hurriedly grabbed a change and she went to Mrs. Rhyne's room where each woman took turns taking a quick shower and dressing.

They sat at the foot of the bed watching the news coverage. Some of the talking heads compared the Oakland disaster to the '89 Quake. No one knew what had caused the sense of despair that led to the suicides and caused so many auto accidents. Mutants were the logical suspects. No surprise there. The Friends of Humanity spokesman gave the usual diatribe. Carrie did not like the way this was going.

She was pulled from her musings by her son Matt, knocking on the door asking for dinner. 6:30. A little late, but better than going to bed hungry.

The two women and three boys climbed into the rental and went a couple of blocks to a restaurant that they had seen which had electricity. Naturally, the place was packed with people, who a year ago, wouldn't have believed that they would pay twelve dollars for a burger,

There was one small booth by the kitchen which was available. Since the boys were little, no one felt too claustrophobic. The women ordered a large burger to be split between the boys along with some fries and milk. The women each ordered soup and half a sandwich.

The talk in the restaurant was about Oakland and it was getting ugly. Carrie glanced at Beverly and Alan who each had that look in their eyes that said, "Telepathy in use."

Alan leaned quietly over the table and told Matt and Lenny in Kirghiz, "Mrs. Rhyne said that we have to be quiet here. If these people knew that we had powers they would be mean to your mom and me and Mrs. Rhyne, so don't say anything until we are in the car, khorosho?."

At that moment, an obviously mutant woman and a little girl made the mistake of entering the restaurant. She was an attractive woman of maybe, twenty-five, with light green skin and strawberry blonde hair. In Carrie's estimate the woman wouldn't have been over five foot two.

Sensing danger, the woman turned to leave, only to have a thirty something much taller African American rise from the booth nearest the door, from where Carrie assumed he was dining with his wife and two young children. He took two steps towards the mutant woman and give the younger woman a hard shove to the ground.

He leaned over her and started cursing. "You have a lot of nerve to come in here after what your kind did in Oakland! I'm from there! How many of my family and friends are hurt or dead because of you?"The little girl started crying.

Carrie had been stunned by the speed and the viciousness of the assault. What could she do? A couple of women had screamed, but no one rose to defend the woman. Carrie looked around. Her eyes focused on some salt and pepper shakers on a nearby table. She wasn't a strong telekinetic. If she had the time, she could unscrew the container and throw the contents in the man's eyes, but she knew that he wouldn't give her the time to do it.

His diatribe continued. He kicked her once and looked like he intended to do a number on the woman when suddenly, he started scratching himself, furiously and screamed, "What are you doing to me!"

Carrie glanced across the table to see Alan's face with a mask of concentration. Little Alan was attacking the man! He had Taken Beverly's hand Beverly looked distressed, no horrified. Alan's head slammed back into the cushion of the booth, as if an invisible hand had slapped him. Beverly yanked her hand away as the front door of the restaurant opened and in walked Pavel Kim and Lars Davis. Carrie felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

With the end of Alan's telepathic assault the man turned to face the mutant men. Pavel was two or three inches shorter than the belligerent, Carrie jumped out of the booth and hurried to the fallen woman and helped her and her daughter to the booth. The belligerent glanced back at Carrie as she helped the fallen woman and her child to get to their feet, but he didn't dare turn his back on Pavel who had moved right up to the man's chin.

"You did no hit that woman, did you?," the Korean Kazakh said in his slightly broken English, the menace in his voice, obvious.

"Hey, you better mind your own business, you know what I'm sayin'? Those muties probably killed half my family and they're gonna pay!" the belligerent shouted.

Lars spoke up. "Oh I'm so sure that woman and her child are the instigators!"

"Shut up," the belligerent said.

The wife of the belligerent pulled a gun from her purse and pointed it at the two men.

Lars looked at her and she quietly put the gun on the table and moved her hand into her lap, a blank look on her face. As Lars walked over to the gun, the belligerent shouted, "What did you do to my wife?" He took a swing at Pavel.

Pavel's mutant abilities were super strength and reflexes. He caught the other man's wrist with his one hand. He spun his opponent's arm around the other man's back and using the other man's arm and his belt, he pressed his opponent straight into the air and held him there.

As Lars picked up the gun, the belligerent's wife screamed which set off their children to crying. The rest of the restaurant was silent. Lars unloaded the bullets from the gun. "I have no problem with a person exercising their Second Amendment Rights to self defense, but when you point the gun at me I get a little offended."

"What you want we should do with him?" Pavel asked.

Lars thought for a second. "Put him down."

Pavel walked the belligerent over and put him down in front of his family. The man glared at Pavel. Though he had no scruples about hitting strange women, the belligerent was no coward. "Now what?" he snarled at the two mutants.

"Now you take your family and you go home," Lars said

The man looked perplexed. "What?" It was the last thing he expected to hear, His wife had a frightened, but hopeful look on her face.

There was a hardness in Lars' eyes and voice when he said."You are going to leave tonight, knowing that you have no compunction to hit women in front of their children or in front of your children. You will leave knowing that when her men saw you doing this, they stopped you in a way that showed you mercy. Either my friend or I could have torn you into pieces in front of your wife, in front of your children, but we didn't. You will leave with the knowledge that everyone in this restaurant will tell everyone they know what you did and what we did. For the record, I hope that all of your family is alive and well in Oakland, but even if they are not, that doesn't give you the right to hurt innocent people. There is the door," Lars walked over to the table with the women and children, turning his back on the other man. Pavel went and held the door open.

Humiliated, the man pulled some money out of his wallet to pay for the meal and put it on the table, then he and his family left.

As soon as the belligerent's family left, Lars looked at the woman. She was holding her ribs and she had the beginning of a shiner. "Ma'am, I think that you might be safer if you came with us. We'll get you to a safe place."

The green skinned woman hesitated. "They're friends," Carrie whispered.

The green skinned mutant searched Carrie's face , for truth? Hope? The woman rose to her feet and picked up her still crying daughter and said ,"Okay."

At the door, Lars turned around and said to the patrons. "I want to thank you all for reminding us again just how cowardly most human beings really are. Every one of you except that woman over there, would have let this lady be killed and you wouldn't lift a finger to help her. Again, thank you and have a good night. Not!" He used the sleeve of his jacket and wiped off fingerprints and the three mutant adults and little girl walked out of sight.

Carrie hurriedly took forty dollars out of her purse, laid it on the table and said. "We're leaving." Beverly was still looking more distressed than Carrie had seen her. They could hear muted discussions as they left the room. Across the street, in the twilight, she could make out Logan and Wildchild. They were relaxing against a building, Logan with a lit cigar in his teeth. If there were any trouble they would hear and be there to help, like a shot. She was happy to see them, but where was Joe?

When they got back to the hotel, Joe was in the parking lot with Lars. Joe scooped Carrie in his arms. "I stepped over to New York City for just a minute. When I got back to Ohio, I was told to jump to the Joplin farm. Lars brought me up to speed. Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," she answered, Beverly was still shaken. Alan looked sullen, Why? What was going on?

"We should go upstairs," Lars said. He was still angry.

When they got upstairs, while still in the hall, Lars rounded on Alan. "YOU are in trouble, kid. Joe, Carrie, we need to have a serious sit down regarding Alan's behavior at the restaurant."

"Okay,"Joe turned to his sons. "Boys, go in and take a shower and get ready for bed, while we deal with this."

Matt and Lenny hurried to comply. They didn't know what their friend had done, but they were both glad that they didn't do it.

"Let's step in Mrs. Rhyne's room." Joe said. The four adults along with an angry little boy went in to the second room.

"Why did you hit me at the restaurant?" Alan said with indignation.

"You honestly don't know why I smacked you?" Lars asked.

"NO!"the boy replied. "I used Ants in the Pants on that bad guy for hitting that woman! You beat him up too!"

Ants in the Pants was a telepathic attack method that many low level telepaths could do. In their future, Emma Frost had taught the technique to Alan, Bryce and Mrs. Rhyne and others in a class a month before.

"You didn't just use Ants in the Pants, did you Alan? If you had just done that, I would have told you to stop and let me finish the fight. I would have told you that you had done a good job and that would have been it. What else did you do?" Lars asked.

Alan thought for a second. "Well, I linked with Mrs. Rhyne like I saw you do on the astral plane, yesterday."

"No Alan. That is not what you did. You forced a link with Mrs. Rhyne. That is what you are in trouble for. The reason that I smacked you, telepathically was to make you let go," Lars said.

"You did what?" Joe asked, angry now. "What made you think that was acceptable behavior?"

Carrie could see that Alan was beginning to realize that maybe he had done something wrong. Carrie looked at Beverly. She was grim.

"But,,but you guys said it make you way stronger and.." Alan stammered.

Joe took a calming breath. Being a parent of two boys gave him a lot more perspective concerning childhood discipline than Lars had. Lars was more than willing to let Joe take point, Carrie noticed. Though not a telepath, she understood the seriousness of what had happened.

"Alan, you remember when we arrived in Biskek, when we left the  
Danger Room yesterday?" Joe asked. "You remember what it felt like when we were attacked?"

They saw Alan shudder.

"Alan, our enemies were trying to force a meld with all of us. You were doing the same thing with just one person." Joe said.

"No, I wasn't! I wouldn't do that!" Alan denied.

"Yes Alan. That is exactly what you did," Mrs. Rhyne said.

Alan looked terrified at her pronouncement. "I"m sorry," he said contritely. "I just wanted to stop the bad guy so much and.."

"And you didn't consider the consequences of what you did," Joe finished.

Alan hung his head.

After a few seconds that must have seemed like eternity to the boy. Mrs. Rhyne said. "We are glad that you understand how serious this is Alan."

"You still must be punished, though. I want you to walk over to that corner and put your nose in it until we tell you to come out. You are to keep your shield up. No broadcasting and no listening to anyone. I want you to remember Biskek and think about what we said. Hop to it, mister!"

Alan went over to the designated corner and stuck his nose in it.

The adults stepped out into the hall.

"I can't believe we had that conversation," Joe said.

"Thanks you two. I didn't know how I was going to handle that," Mrs. Rhyne said.

"Are you okay, Beverly?" Carrie asked.

"i am now," Mrs. Rhyne replied.

"You do realize what this means, don't you?" Joe asked.

"We are going to have to keep a closer eye on the boy," Lars said.

"That too. I was thinking about the war." Joe said.

"What are you thinking, hon?" Carrie asked her husband.

"If Alan can increase his strength by attacking low level telepaths, then the Shadow King can, as well. No telepath is safe." Joe said somberly.


	9. Chapter 9

At about the same time that Alan was getting in trouble, Jubilee was tired and she was a little angry. She had been a good sport, a team player and helped with the kids, all day. As a former X-Man, she felt that she was entitled to sit in on the planning session, but no! When she went to listen to the strategy meeting, she was shown the door. Well, she wasn't planning on spending the war as a babysitter. She had been an X-Man!

She stormed off in a huff down a trail that started in the back yard. Some of the children had followed it earlier that day and had discovered a small pond on the property. She hadn't gone down to it yet, and it was away from the house.

As she approached the pond, she could hear murmuring. Had some of the children slipped away? She hoped not. It was almost dusk when she went around the last knoll to find half a dozen teenagers sitting by the pond. That teleporter, Ned was there along with John Singh, two girls and another guy, who had all been helping with the kids. She was pretty sure that she had all of the new kid's names down, but except for those Chamber had introduced yesterday, she hadn't had a chance to learn what their powers were.

Each one of them had a beer in their hand. There was an open case of Redd Texas Beer in the middle of the group. Several beers had been placed in the pond to chill.

"Got away from babysittin'? Well, have a beer with us," Ned said, reaching for one of the chilling beers.

Jubilee didn't care for beer, but she was so mad at Miss Frost for showing her the door that she took the proffered bottle. She looked around, hoping to see a bottle opener.

"You twist the top off," one girl said.

"Oh," Jubilee said, feeling a little foolish. Twisting the lid off, she took a swig. She wanted to gag, but she forced the beer down. As she sat, she noticed that everyone was staring at her.

"What? Jubilee asked, self conscious.

"It's just that we knew your older self," Ned said.

"My older self?" Jubilee asked. She kicked herself mentally. If Jono was in his thirties, then it would stand to reason that she would be too.

"Yes we did. If things had gone a little differently, you would have your daughter here." John interjected. He spoke English with that combination of British and and Central Asian accent that Jubilee so associated with India whereas Ned was an East End Londoner.

Regardless of their accents, what they had said floored Jubilee. "My what?" she croaked. As her heart took a shot of adrenaline from the shock of that statement Jubilee had to wonder whether one of the kids was her daughter. Jubilee was just under fifteen. She couldn't be a mother to a seven year old!

Ned shrugged. "There wuz at least twice as many people in the Danger Room than wuz saved. Me best mate dinit make it. Lots of little kids dinit make it either. When I saw you wuz here, I looked for her. Ain' seen her." The others shook their heads.

Jubilee looked west at the sunset. It was beautiful. The sun was behind a few clouds that were beginning to turn pink. She loved the X-Men, especially Wolvie, No doubt he was a father figure, but Jubilee missed her parents. They had died not long after her powers came in courtesy of a semi truck with a driver who had been on the road beyond allowed hours. She had run away after that. Foster care and mutants did not mix. She had been with the X-Men and after that, the Massachusetts school, pretty much ever since. The idea of her having a family filled her with a hope and a hunger she didn't know that she had.

"So, who do I marry?" Jubilee asked a little afraid of the answer. If she married Emmit or Angelo, it would make things so awkward, but if it were one of the guys and these new kids told him first, that would be worse!

"You married a bloke from Paris. I think he wuz from Paris, anyway. He wuz half Chinese and half French or somthin' like that. His name was Pierre-Claude Vachon. He was some kind of engineer," Ned said.

Pierre-Claude, huh? She thought to herself. "Seriously, you guys aren't putting me on, right? I mean, this real important to me."

They all shook their heads vigorously. "You would come around the school about twice a week for tutoring students with powers that were similar to yours," John interjected. "We did not know your family well, but we did know them.

"I had a daughter?" Jubilee asked, with a small smile on her face.

"No," Marlena said, finishing her beer. "You had five daughters."

"Five? Five daughters?" Jubilee said thunderstruck.

"You should see the look on your face! No, it's true innit?" Ned said laughing. "You can ask Chamber, our bloke, not yours, and he'll tell you we are tellin' the truth!" The other were laughing and nodding their heads.

"That's enough beer for now. We don't need the fights over us having it,"John said. The others grumbled, but no one grabbed another beer. They gathered their empties and put them in the original case. John and the other guy, a thirteen year old, named Diego pulled the beers from the pond and returned them to the case.

Jubilee took another swig, barely gagging it down. "How did you get the beer, anyway?" she asked.

"Oh that. Well, I went to the store with the cook. Me an' Rachel and a couple of others. Anyway, a lot of stuff was bein' bought an' Dimitri put a case of beer and a case of vodka in the baskets, so I slipped a case in as well. He probably thought one of the adults did it. When we got back, I teleported it here, when no one was lookin'. I put some beers in the water." Ned replied nonchalantly.

"Me an' me best mate, we had the best system for nickin' beer an' fags," Ned said nonchalantly.

"You used to steal cigarettes and beer?" Jubilee asked.

"Hey, she does understand right proper English!" Ned said to the groans of all of his friends.

Jubilee poured out the rest of her beer.

"Didn't like it?" Marlena asked.

"It's not that," Jubilee lied. " I just know that Wolvie can smell beer at thirty yards."

Marlena pulled a pack of gum out of her pocket and stopped. She looked at the other and said somberly, "This gum was in my pocket, yesterday." Everyone got quiet, almost reverently as she handed out the gum to her friends. Everyone got one piece except Jubilee.

Jubilee watched as each person took and folded up the wrapper and put it in their pockets. Jubilee knew that every one of them would remember this moment for the rest of their lives and, to the best of their abilities, keep those wrappers as souvenir's of an erased timeline for as long as they lived.

"We should go," Jubilee said.

Ned took the case of beer and teleported away for a second. When he returned, he pointed out a tree in the distance. "The beer is over there," he said.

No one asked Ned to teleport them. The walk to the house was made in absolute silence. Each person was lost in their own thoughts. When they got to the house, they saw Mrs. Nishima. She was obviously still hurting, but she was trying to keep busy. "We have been looking for you. We really need some help with the children."

None of the others offered anything, so Jubilee said, " We'll be right there."

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"Ji'an, do you have a moment?" Remi Jr. asked , just after the meeting broke up. Plans were underway and people were hopping, but Ji'an hadn't been assigned anything. Several minutes after the meeting, Ji'an had come out of the restroom when Remi had caught him.

"Yes. What is on your mind?" Ji'an asked, turning off the bathroom light.

"I asked Aban if we could use his bedroom for a moment," Remi said as he started to walk towards Xavier's bedroom. Ji'an followed without a word. As they entered the bedroom, Ji'an could see that Renee Sr. was there seated in the chair that Cody had used earlier. A second chair had been brought in to which Remi indicated that Ji'an should sit.

"The reason that you haven't been asked to do something yet, is because I wanted to ask you what you thought would be the best place for you in the upcoming battle. Would you like to stay and fight the Shadow King or would you prefer to come with me to fight the Kor'Es'Rebak? I know you were listening when I was talking about the history of what happened the first time," Remi said as he sat on the bed.

Ji'an looked startled. He gathered his thoughts for a second before responding. "I wish I could be both places. I always enjoyed Star Wars. You are about to go live it. I know that what you are doing is very dangerous, but it is very tempting. On the other hand, I am a human and this Shadow King person, he is a killer, everything the Friends of Humanity warned about. I don't want them to be right. I am not sure what is the best thing for me to do."

Remi hesitated. Choosing his words carefully, Remi began, "I don't know China's political leaders very well. I am from another planet, after all. Renee told us something that we need to get to the right officials in China. "

Ji'an watched impassively.

"Renee, Tell Ji'an what you told me. The reason that we are sharing this with you is that I am hoping that you might have an idea, who might be the best person to contact about this."

Ji'an sat impassively.

"When I was a hound, I had access to information about the Shadow King's contacts in China. He will use those contacts to build his empire. I am sure that they will enable him to get some of his relays. Right now, these people are helping the Shadow King for money. I am sure that soon, they will be hounds," Renee said.

"We believe that each relay will be forced to create another relay and then that relay will continue the process, so the Shadow King doesn't have to do it all himself. They are slaves. Imagine how many alphas China has." Remi asked. "We believe that his contacts in China will open a total Asian theater that will spread into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh."

"Who are his contacts?" Ji'an asked, neutrally. It was obvious that he didn't want to admit what Remi was dancing around, that Ji'an was a spy for the Chinese government.

Ji'an had a very impassive face. He seldom showed extreme emotion, but both Remi and Renee could see the shock in his eyes at the names, no matter how hard the young man tried to hide it. "You are certain of this?"

"I have looked at her memories. So has Gambit and Emma. No doubt about it." Remi said.

Ji'an had to think, consider his options. "Let me think about this for a little while. Maybe I can think of someone we can tell." He rose.

Remi rose, "Well if you can think of someone, let me know. My ship will be here in two days. If I don't have a better idea, I will order the ship to broadcast on every frequency in the world, but that will be too late for a lot of people. We have to assume he is in full court press for relays, so we are doing our first recruitment in a couple of hours. It is going to be a long night."

Ji'an nodded and walked out of the bedroom. He went and sat on the front porch. Distant sounds of young girls could be heard from the dorm. The women were putting the girls down for the night. He sat alone, which suited him. Ji'an wasn't putting Remi off. He really needed to think.

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"How did it go?' Gambit said in Shi'ar as he entered Xavier's room.

"It went just as we thought it would," Remi Jr. answered. He looked to Renee. "You understand what we are saying, right?"

"Yes," she answered in Shi'ar. She continued in English. "I don't remember it well enough to speak more than the minimum, but I can still understand it."

"I figured you would have used the language learning programs to learn Shi'ar." turning to Gambit, Remi Jr. continued, "Is everything ready?"

"Almost."

"This is going to be a long night," Remi Jr. said.

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: _

_The one problem that I had with Paradox Law was that I never felt that Cody, Renee and Rachel were portrayed as teenage kids. That is a common problem with most comic teen characters. That is why I am of the opinion that Jim Shooter was so successful early in his career with DC. He wrote reasonable characters. That is why I made Renee pregnant, Cody to blow up, Alan to get into trouble and Jubilee to experiment with alcohol. Their youth is part of the story._


End file.
